My name clearly is not Sinnerman – it would have been apt though – it’s Gert-Jan, GJ for friends. Non-Dutch speakers often struggle with its pronunciation, so most call me Johnny.
Born in the Chinese year of the monkey, (insert joke here) one year before Apollo 11 landed on the moon, an achievement that never fails to impress me, Sinnerman grew up in the South of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border, which instilled a life-long love and appreciation for all things Belgian. Most people laugh when he tells them, he feels part Belgian. Little do they know.
Sinnerman moved to Rotterdam to study Economics & Business at Erasmus University, which he combined with career as a deejay, before it was cool. These days it is hard go into a meeting without some father discreetly asking for advice on how his son can break into the scene. Still waiting for the first parent to ask how their daughter can make it as a deejay. Very unfortunate, music is passion and women bring their own unique style to the mix (pun intended).
Looking back Sinnerman realizes he spent over half of his life in the Netherlands’ second city, so it’s gotta be a good place to live. He works as a finance professional, even though he wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid.
Even as a little boy, whenever he visited a shop, he wondered why certain products were displayed near the entrance but not others. His love for anything business and his curious analytical mind led him to a career in business, and yes he loves it. His inner-archaeologist is still very much alive, but remains dormant until it is travelling time again.
The name Sinnerman obviously is a marketing ploy and on page two of the manual it says you have to share some guilty secrets to “meaningfully” connect with your audience. Get ready to be surprised. Sinnerman loves sweets and cakes with an artificial citrus flavour. He is passionate about his bike as mode of transportation at home, but whenever he is abroad travelling he prefers the local bus over a taxi. Sinnerman’s inner geek enjoys building highly complicated Excel spreadsheets, but abides by the advice of Edward Tufte, who says less is more.
Curious? You can contact Sinnerman through his Linkedin profile. He also runs a blog in Dutch where you can find his trip notes.