I worked as one of the 15 Airline Analysts of the Marketing & Sales organization of Fokker Aircraft from 1985 to 1988. Fokker then had about 15,000 employees with its factory near the Schiphol Airport. The Marketing and Sales organization of about 600 employees was based in a nearby office complex. Dick - left of me at the photo above - was my roommate and mentor. Teun - in the middle in the white shirt - was our team's Manager; the most "chill" manager I ever had during my career. Jan, Mel and Aad were team leaders and have developed - just as Dick - very interesting careers once Fokker went out of business in 1996. It was about 30 years ago I last met up with this group of former colleagues.
Aad picked me up and dropped me off in Soest in his Tesla. What an experience to drive such a fully autonomous car. Hands free, no longer a dashboard but instead a board computer...
The man who introduced me at Fokker was Pieter and I owe him for that big time. Pieter was one of the older brothers of my high school girlfriend Ineke (see a few posts earlier). I followed his example to start an engineering study, and 10 years later he convinced me to go for this position at Fokker. Last night I was invited by Pieter and his wife Titia for dinner. Their house is located in the middle of a local golf course. Many golf balls end up at their property. Pieter has by now collected thousands of balls which he carefully cleans and sorts per manufacturer. A rather unique hobby...
Pieter has become a true wine connaisseur. As always before when I visited them during the past 40 years, he opened a very good bottle, and we had a super enjoyable evening.
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