About Arjen Hemelaar

I studied economics at Erasmus University, obtained an MBA at Nyenrode and lived for three years in a monastery in Nara, Japan. I am an MMS accredited coach, Tiimiakatemia team coach and took training in positive psychology at the Bureau of Positive Psychology. Since January 2019, I have been part of a study and peer supervision group with Jaap Voigt on 'the art of being human'. At Nyenrode University I am a lecturer and coach starting entrepreneurs since 2018.

A solid start

After completing business economics in Rotterdam, I left for Japan for three years. I lived in Tenri, a small village near Nara, once the capital of Japan. An area steeped in history.  I was part of a small religious community there and participated in religious life. Most of my time was spent studying Japanese and obtaining my black belt karate. I learned there, in that ancient traditional environment, to look and think in different ways. It influenced, more than my student days, the choices I would make in life.

After returning to the Netherlands in 1989, I ended up as a marketer at Canon's European headquarters, where I enjoyed working with the many Japanese based there. Partly because I knew the Japanese culture so well, I became the first non-Japanese marketing manager with budget responsibility. However, when service marketing came into vogue in the late 1990s, I switched to telecom. I held several business development positions.

My turn to entrepreneurship

The Internet grew rapidly and became increasingly important. In 2000, I co-founded File2share, an online communication system for the construction industry, and M2Match, an office space search engine. File2Share became a success and continued to grow as part of Rijnja Repro. On M2Match we worked day and night for two years. The first eight months without pay. But with success, because 16 major real estate investors stepped in and funded our startup with several millions. Then came the real estate crisis of 2002 and we had to close the company. It was a hard reset.

Own beer brand and academy

Freedom proved irresistible. In 2005, I founded iKi. My own beer brand in which my Japanese past, my marketing knowledge and my penchant for adventure came together nicely. I put my energy into building the brand. That went well, iKi could be found in the hippest places, both in the Netherlands and abroad. As far away as Taiwan. It's great to walk around Bilbao or Dublin and find your own beer in a café. We quickly sold half a million bottles. In the beer market volumes are high and margins are low. Because of the margin pressure, profitability lagged. When we finished building the iKi brand, focus shifted to management. It was time for me to move on. I am still involved as a shareholder. The story of iKi was not over with that: iKi is still growing.

With that entrepreneurial experience, I became a partner at Team Academy, a university for young entrepreneurs.  Here you get study points when your own start-up makes a profit.  As a board, we achieved the necessary accreditation, moved the program from Haarlem to B.Amsterdam, Europe's largest startup hub, and doubled the number of students. In addition to my role as director, I coached a team of 15 students. A new experience.  For four years I coached that team one day a week and traveled with them to Spain, Finland, California, India and China. I gained insight not only into how they were developing but also how I could develop myself further. It became one of the most special periods of my life. And as with iKi, I stepped down from management after the transition was complete. Meanwhile, I was captivated by coaching. I decided to us use my experience in business, managing and coaching to establish my own coaching practice.

Coaching

Since to 2017 I guide and support executives and entrepreneurs who want to strengthen their leadership skills, achieve goals, and seek personal growth. I am based in Haarlem, and The Hague.

In 2019 I joined a supervision group guided by Jaap Voigt. It inspires and energizes me to develop myself further as a human being as well a coach.

Arjen is inspired by:

  • De MMS coaching methodiek van Cherie Carter-Scott,

  • Positieve psychology; Character strengths, PsyCap and more,

  • Yi Jing en de kunst van het mens zijn van; Jaap Voigt,

  • Leadership; Fred Kiel,

  • Learning; Peter Senge, Steve Blank,

  • En ook door Carl Jung, Daniel Isenberg.

Arjen asks the right questions and gets to the heart of the matter.

Arjen Hemelaar, Den Haag / Haarlem
06 51 21 18 34
coaching@arjenhemelaar.nl