What is the most valuable lesson you learned at SBE related to entrepreneurship?
I think that Maastricht University and the problem based learning approach at SBE taught me to take on active self-learning. This helped me during all those years as an entrepreneur when I couldn’t rely on a big team to solve all your problems. My time at SBE also helped me with negotiations, as I am able to quickly understand the fundamental problems that need to be solved.  

How do you think SBE has influenced your career path?
My time at SBE and in the Netherlands was definitely a strong trigger for my decision to become an entrepreneur. I appreciated the interactive and open dialogue with students, tutors, and professors from all over the world. To this day, I find it truly inspiring to work in an international environment and in multicultural teams. My business is sourcing organic raw materials from many other countries, especially from Asia and 40% of my sales goes to other EU countries. In Maastricht, I learned that we all benefit from globalisation and I am still a strong believer of global division of labor and the positive welfare effects for everybody.  Finally even though one should not generalise, I often admired the Dutch for their pragmatism, their positive attitude and their ‘just do it’ mentality. In this aspect, I now try to be more Dutch than the average German.