On December 19 of 2022, it is exactly 25 years ago that MaxGrip was officially founded. We asked Jakob Boelens, one of our founders and senior partners of the company, to share his top five of 25 years in business.
2011 – Start shareholders participation scheme
“Before this year, the company was already fully privately owned by the senior partners but from 2011 onwards, all employees could become shareholders too. I still remember that we had a great many colleagues who were then interested in taking this step. I really like how all MaxGrippers get the chance to participate in this way. It enriches your job and enhances your entrepreneurial spirit as you are offered a different perspective on our company.”
2012 – Start activities in USA
“This was pioneering at its best. After fifteen successful business years in the Netherlands, we wanted to grow internationally. While we knew that some big multinational clients would like to work with us across continents, we had no actual projects. However, our entrepreneurial spirit pushed us to just give it a try. We went to conferences across the United States, networked a lot and founded MaxGrip Americas. Mind you, this was not more than one Dutch colleague working from a closet-sized space somewhere in Houston, Texas. We gradually grew, adding local experts to our staff. We survived several challenges such as the financial crisis and the Covid-pandemic. Despite those difficult years, we are still growing stronger every day. In fact, we now have a 100% local staff which I am very happy with and proud of.”
2013 – Malaysia office founded
“One year after our expansion to the USA, we longed for more and set our sights on the Asia-Pacific region. While we started out with an office in Singapore, we soon moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was because our first project was to support the local team of a big oil & gas company in that country. After a while it did not make sense to keep commuting from one country to the other. Next year, we will celebrate our ten-year anniversary in Malaysia with a strong client portfolio and very knowledgeable engineers and consultants. Very inspiring.”
2019 – MaxGrip sells software assets to AVEVA
“From 2000 onwards, MaxGrip developed its own asset performance management software. In 2019 we took the opportunity to sell our software assets to AVEVA, a global leading software solution provider. This was a hard decision to make as we had also poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into maturing our software but from a strategic point of view it was the right thing to do. It showed that what we had built was successful. It also paved the road for focus; where we split our attention to software on the one hand and consultancy services on the other hand in the past, we could now focus solely on our services. Having said that, I hope that MaxGrip will always keep a connection to APM software in a broad way. ”
2022 - Mark Mulder starts as CEO
“Mark becoming our CEO is a typical example of how people get opportunities to grow at our company. I vividly remember how he started sixteen years ago as a consultant and it’s great to see how Mark has grown into a very capable leader. To me, it is really rewarding to see someone on a growth path like his. It fits with MaxGrip’s growth and ambitions and has always been part of our culture to create opportunities for all MaxGrippers. I hope and think that we will continue with this common thread of growth for our company and MaxGrippers alike.”
