Who is Peter Klapwijk?

Future

We live in the 21 century and the world is in motion. The influence of the quality and type of food that we eat becomes clearer every day. At the same time, it seems like the boundaries of our economic growth have been met. We will have to start producing more efficiently and cleaner, with less usage of raw material. It is necessary to look for new opportunities to secure Mother Earth and all of her citizens of a safe and healthy environment in the future. I am looking forward to participating in this great challenge. My passion and expertise are intertwined in the matters of growing and working together, innovating to produce sustainable products and optimize the processes of achieving.

Come around to drink a cup of coffee, get to know one another or just catch up. Everything starts with a solid conversation from human to human, an idea and a sincere connection.

I’m looking forward to it, how about you?

Who is Peter Klapwijk?

I am a people person, attentive observer, listener, ‘creative’ thinker and strategist. I participate in watching, thinking and feeling along with an organization, developments of your surroundings, innovation and cultivational processes.
My feedback is clear, I reflect and develop together with an entrepreneur and/or management, when it comes to optimization of your processes, knowledge expansion and/or innovations.Apart from that I have a broader international experience and a wide network which I can use or consult if need be.

I enjoy building new and sustainable connections. Bringing people and businesses together naturally and be a part of the implementation of new businesses and collaborations. This way we can expand our horizon, divert our boundaries and create space for growth.

Trust, attention and the joy in everything we do is key in this situation. After all, we are just human.

Ever since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated by the dynamics of horticulture. Exploring the possibilities of a new cultivation or technique to divert the boundaries, that were set by that time. I experienced some ups and downs in my career as a grower. When you look for the boundaries and decide to turn into a different direction it may happen that you take the wrong one. A setback every now and then is all part of the process and allows us to experience the insights and breakthroughs that we might be looking for.

After 45 years of growing, developing, being an entrepreneur and adviser, I am still fascinated by everything that links to sustainability and horticulture. Passionate and full of joy I fulfill the role of (growth)advisor, connector, sounding board and coach.

 

A piece of history: then to now

Following our family tradition, I started working at our parental family business in 1974. Underneath the wings of my best friend and father Kees, I took my first steps alongside the path of growers. Working shoulder to shoulder with my brother Anne (whom we lost way too soon), we expanded the business Gebr. Klapwijk. We were mainly specialized and passionate about growing radicchio and melons first, later on we transferred our business model to the growth of vine tomatoes.

Together with Teun van den Dool and his team (Hortilux) I envisioned and enrolled the concept ‘growing tomatoes by growing light’. It was a time in my life that I will never forget. It thought me that boundaries can be diverted by considering thoroughly and taking the next steps one at a time.

 

GreenQ

There was an increasing interest in The Netherlands and far beyond for the growth of tomatoes provided by supplemental lighting for the horticultural industry and producing year-round.
My social network started growing and I started to receive specific questions in my field of knowledge for advice.  From that moment on I started to grow into this new position I created in horticulture. It was the time that I discovered my newly found talent as an advisor.
In order to be able to expand my working field and anticipate on the growing demand of green horticultural knowledge, I founded GreenQ. Due to a wonderful group of colleagues, GreenQ grew out to be a prominent supplier of knowledge for cultivation under glass worldwide.

 

Improvement Centre

Along with my partners at that time we founded the Improvement Centre located in Bleiswijk in the year 2006. Up to today this is the place where a lot of new developments and ideas on growing and agricultural technology are born, developed and demonstrated.
I transferred my share in these companies to Delphy in 2013 and ended this dynamic and most of all educational era, definitively and suitably, on December 31^st of 2014.

 

2Harvest

With 2Harvest I broadened my field of work beyond knowledge development, growth advice and training in tomatoes, with or without supplemental lighting. I started taking projects and assignments in seed cultivation, distribution, phalaenopsis, rose cultivation.
Alongside, activities in business development and assistance of innovational projects for suppliers in horticulture were curated. During this time, I became conscious of the fact that ‘people, connection and collaboration’ are key if you are looking for results in all these green innovational processes.

With great pleasure, I concluded my education of ‘Intuitive coach’ at IMC mensontwikkeling in 2017. By now, sustainability and the relationship of humans together with Mother Earth, are centralized in my contribution to projects, businesses, systems and the world even more than before.