After graduating in 1991 from Dutch Polytechnic Noorderhaaks in Den Helder, he worked two years on drill rigs as a casingrunning engineer. Afterwards, he sailed for five years around the world as a safety officer on semi-submersible crane vessels. Wishing to work onshore again, he worked as a consultant for an engineering firm before he worked for 10 years as a HSE engineer with a large Dutch dredging company. In 2010, he joined Dockwise as a lead HSE engineer. After the merger with Boskalis, he now works as a lead HSE engineer in the Boskalis Offshore Energy Division