Director Brigit van Dijk – Van de Reijt of the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij tonight emerged as the big winner of the seventh edition of the Gerard & Anton High Tech Piek Awards. The election of people who have stood out in the past year within the Eindhoven high-tech world counts 9 awards. This time, the ceremony took place at the Philips Museum, where Beatrix Bos and Bert-Jan Woertman, together with jury chairman Stijn Steenbakkers, handed out the prizes to the winners.
Stars 2023: Four people are spotlighted for contributing to the high-tech and startup scene in and around Eindhoven in the past year.
Bangers 2024: Four people from whom much can be expected for the coming year.
Peak 2023: One person has made – and hopefully will continue to make – a structural contribution to the Eindhoven ecosystem year after year that deserves a lifetime award.
Peak Awards 2023
A professional jury makes judgments based on nominations from everyone active within the Eindhoven innovative ecosystem. Previous winners of the main prize (the peak, because of the Christmas tree that is always just around during the ceremony) are Guus Frericks, Rob van Gijzel, Maarten Steinbuch, Staf Depla, Steef Blok, Naomie Verstraeten, and Lucas van Grinsven. For the first time, “Gerard & Anton” names are linked to the Piek Awards. This is a logical step in the ambition expressed earlier this year by the ecosystem to expand various startup events, the accompanying network, and the awards into a Gerard & Anton community, with an accompanying website and newsletter with all local startups, scale-up, and innovation news and the event calendar.
Creating the future
Jury chairman Stijn Steenbakkers (alderman for Brainport and Economy): “In Brainport Eindhoven, we make the future. Day in and day out, thousands of companies and start-ups in our region work on high-tech solutions that make a difference on social issues for many people around us. This position cannot be taken for granted and we must cherish it. I am proud that for the seventh time with the High Tech Peak Awards we can put driving forces and new talents in the region well deservedly in the spotlight. Important as recognition, but also as an incentive to keep working on what you believe in, swimming against the current and strengthening the strength of our unique high-tech ecosystem.”
Co-inventor of the awards Bert-Jan Woertman: “Success of Brainport is the success of the triple helix and cooperation across borders and sacred cows. But that sounds so abstract. There are people behind it who have been working for years. Step by step, idea by idea, funding after funding, network after network. Some succeed better than others, which is precisely why the High Tech Peak Awards were created. As inspiration for everyone with ambition. With each other, for each other, and together for Brainport.”
Before the awards were presented, Olga Coolen, Philips Museum director, explained why it is so fitting to have this award ceremony on the “holy ground” of Philips’ very first light bulb factory: “In the 19th century, Gerard and Anton started Philips & Co.; the company was nicknamed The Lamp. From this company, so to speak, our region emerged. So you could say that without Gerard and Anton, there would be no Brainport region, but without you all, there would be nothing to look forward to. Because just as they stood at the cradle of Brainport, you stand at the cradle of the future of our region. Which we will look back on several generations from now.”
The High Tech Peak Awards are an initiative of Innovation Origins, with support from High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Municipality of Eindhoven, EY, VO, Kadans, Twice, Goevaers Bouw and Holland Innovative.
Below are all the winners and the jury’s verdict:
John Bell: Star award
If, like John, you combine your commitment to your own company (HighTechXL) so well with your commitment to the entire ecosystem, you deserve a Star. That he thereby links collegiality – both within HighTechXL and beyond – to results makes him a figurehead of this region. As we have heard so often, this region is all about cooperation. But yes, you can shout that, but then you’re not there yet. John Bell links words to deeds and thus manages to give HighTechXL and the entire community a place on the world map.
Fred Roozeboom: Star Award
Last summer, Fred Roozeboom joined an illustrious list of scientists by winning the Gordon Moore Medal. For that reason alone, we hoist him onto the podium with great pride. The prestigious oeuvre prize of the worldwide operating Electrochemical Society was more than deserved, especially because it looked not only at the technological feats within the work of this winner from Waalre but also at his social impact. And he proves that impact every day with the lasting effects of the many patents to his name and the support he offers to his successors. It is not without reason that they at Carbyon have embraced his wisdom and experience with great joy and reap the benefits every day.
René Paré: Star Award
In 10 years, against all odds, René Paré has established the Eindhoven Maker Fair as an annual event for the entire Benelux. Of course, we all think it is logical that this concept has taken root in Eindhoven, but that was not so obvious when René took the initiative to offer this American phenomenon a place in Brainport. Starting out as a delightfully chaotic temporary workshop for fiddlers, peddlers, and inventors, whether failed or not, he has managed to expand it into a phenomenon that thousands of people from inside and outside the region look forward to each year. The result is a combination of (still) those individual tinkerers and world-changing technical concepts. It is good to note that René was going for sustainability before it became a buzzword for marketers.
Sonja Vos: Star Award
Under Sonja’s leadership, fifty new companies have found a place within TU/e Participations, with at least ten more joining annually and some fifteen million euros of funding being raised yearly. With people like Sjoerd Romme as an example, she has also given concrete meaning to valorization around The Gate: preparing scientific value for society. Setting up the Revolving Valorization Fund can largely be credited to her. “I have the most fun job in the Netherlands,” she recently told herself. As much as that is the case, we as a jury know that few know how to do this job like Sonja. Thanks to her, inspired and ambitious people get the chance to realize their dreams. Sonja keeps them on track and does not only those young entrepreneurs themselves, but also society a great favor.
Katja Pahnke: Banger Award
The jury chuckled at the awarding of the Banger to Katja Pahnke. After all, someone with such a track record, how can you give them an award for people from whom much is still expected? Well, with Katja that makes perfect sense: she has proven in recent years that she jumps from one highlight to the next. The bar can never be set high enough for her, which is why the jury is happy to raise it even higher. With leadership positions at Eindhoven Engine and Prodrive, among others, ‘in the pocket’, with her many ongoing supervisory roles at the heart of our innovative ecosystem, and certainly with her new role at the Dutch Design Foundation, Katja is the person who in 2024 will finally firmly tie the loose strings of Tech and Design together. Completely in line with Dutch Design, Katja is optimistic by nature and believes that the problem-solving ability of designers can make the world a better place. Therefore, we are convinced that her appointment is great news for all those designers, researchers, and engineers who are tackling the great challenges of our time together.
Bob van der Meulen: Banger Award
Round One Ventures, a student-run venture capital fund that invests in promising, pre-seed, start-up students, made its first major investments last year. The judges are not only full of praise for Bob and his teammates’ bold initiative but are especially looking forward to what else may emerge from it in the near future. Bob has jumped into a hole with Round One that really needed to be filled, especially in this region. Round One has already become an important player in bridging the knowledge and networking gap between students and the more seasoned, successful entrepreneurs. Round One is active in mentoring with experts, international expansion programs and student employees. That sounds like the activities of a seasoned venture fund from Palo Alto, but Bob shows that even with a good dose of Eindhoven guts, anything is possible. And we haven’t even mentioned the already legendary founder drinks, also a particularly effective means of giving innovative entrepreneurs a boost in their earliest stages. The jury says: Cheers to Bob!
Janne Brok: Banger Award
The fact that Janne Brok performed at world level as a professional cyclist naturally already gave the jury a positive feeling. But more relevant to this award is that as Managing Director of the Eindhoven Eingine Janne has become the linchpin in the high-tech network, operating at the intersection of companies and knowledge institutions. With over 15 years of experience in deep technological innovations for the private and public sectors, she knows exactly how teams can achieve impact using digital technologies such as mathematical modeling, analysis, physics and AI. Her expertise and her human approach complement what the Engine already had in place in such a way that we are sure a lot of surprising things will emerge from it in the coming year. In doing so, it is good to see how she has been a stimulus for girls and women in engineering over the years. This started long ago with a role in Technica10, a volunteer organization for elementary school children, but has only gained impact in all her subsequent roles. Explaining difficult things simply is what typifies Janne anyway. Also at Bureau WO we see how she makes the most complicated mathematical models applicable to every specific problem a client encounters. We wish Brainport a lot of Janne in 2024!
Patricia Dankers: Banger award
As a chemist in the world of high-tech, Patricia has acquired a solid position; not only because of her professorship, but at least as much through her involvement with new initiatives and startups that are only too happy to have her as a mentor. UPyTher, the Smart Biomaterials Consortium, VivArt-X and the Helmond Biotech-materials Hub are just a few of those initiatives that probably would not be where they are today without Patricia’s input. She is the prototype inspirer: the classic professor who knows how to inspire her students to great heights. Not only because she masters the theory, but especially because she demonstrates it herself in practice. How she finds time for it is a mystery to us, but her love of music has also made the Helmonds Music Corps a grateful recipient of Patricia’s love. “My dream is to introduce complex functions into materials using different supramolecular formulation and screening approaches, to control biology in the human body eventually,” she writes on her own ‘Dankerslab’ website. Well, the jury’s dream is that that dream will come true.
Brigit van Dijk – van de Reijt: Gerard & Anton High Tech Peak Award
The Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij celebrated its 40th anniversary last year and was also recently recognized as the most active investor in the Netherlands. Although she always likes to put it off on her – indeed very capable – colleagues, the jury can see that this position has come about mainly thanks to the efforts of Brigit van Dijk. Her key word, always and everywhere: cooperation. She demonstrates that, internally and externally, every day. By putting her organization together in a way that produces the most effect, by permanently inspiring her people and by her uninterrupted presence in all those places where things happen for her organization. In all honesty: of course, it is not only Brainport that benefits from this, because BOM is there for the entire province. But suppose you look at the sums that BOM has now left behind in Southeast Brabant and which initiatives were able to emerge, grow, and become successful because of it alone. In that case, it takes little imagination to establish how important BOM has become in this under Brigit’s leadership. But fortunately, it is not just about money. Brigit has succeeded – for example, by embracing the Level Up event – with her compelling-enthusiastic working method to make a lot of start-up entrepreneurs in the innovative playing field believe in themselves. For 40 years of BOM (including many defining years under her leadership) and always inspiring personal commitment to the well-being of the smartest region in the world, Brigit van Dijk deserves the Peak Award!
In her acceptance speech, Brigit herself summed it all up like this: “This Piek Award is, of course, a great honor, and it illustrates the special bond between BOM and Brainport. We really do it together. Whether it concerns challenges such as grid congestion, investing in high-profile start-ups and scale-ups, or the positioning of Brainport and our high-tech sector abroad, we go for it. And there’s still a lot to do. We want to tackle that together!”
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