My journey at KPN has come to an end

After 8 great years at KPN, my adventure comes to an end. It all started with a joke saying I wanted to take the challenge with myself and work for a corporate after my entrepreneur adventures. The challenge was to learn how a corporate work, operate (and yes, including all politics around it) to become more complete as a person but at the same time stay authentic. The challenge was for max 2 years, but it turned out to be 8 years!

 The reason why it took 6 years longer is simple. KPN was and is willing to change and they give space to their employees like me, even when it was out of the box. I had the opportunity and privilege to work with great people who believed watching TV needed a change. When I started 8 years ago, it was not just about the settopbox anymore, it was about activating more screens. After KPN introduced our iTV service on the PC and laptop, I worked with full enthusiasm to continue this journey towards Windows 8, Xbox 360, Chromecast and more.

To continue this learning about changing consumer behavior and different ways to consume video we made a bold move; introducing as one of the first a standalone tv app called Play. van KPN, with live tv, recordings, catch-up, and VOD incl. the complete HBO offering. Maybe we were too early, who knows, but did we learn a lot? YES. Was it fun? YES. Are we using lots of those insights in our current KPN iTV product? YES. It was really great to be part of those tv adventures together with very professional and passionate TV colleagues, thanks again guys!

 My journey and space for exploring new areas the last 2 years continued at New Business. Working with a team of people breathing innovation, searching, validating and implementing new opportunities in areas where KPN is a relevant partner and sometimes in areas where KPN is not always to ‘usual suspect’. Lots of energy, lots of enthusiasm and also here, I learned a lot!

After 8 years I can say I am happy I didn't stay for just 2 years. I am proud of KPN and proud I had the privilege to work with passionate people being the heart of the company and the brand. I wish all of my colleagues lots of success as ‘the network of The Netherlands’!

Still, I have to be honest with myself. The love for smaller companies is still there and a better authentic fit for me. With all this experience in my backpack I am very happy to say I will start to work from the 1st of November for another great (but slightly smaller) Dutch company called 24i. A pioneer in TV apps and now ready to grow and getting more fireworks out of their framework! Very excited to be part of this new journey as Partner Manager and fuel the framework with powerful partners towards more growth!