Name: Hans de Penning 

Function: CFO 

Joined: Spring 2015 

Favorite quote: Something I heard somewhere that goes like this: “If you want to observe an animal, don’t watch at the animal but observe the things that the animal is looking at.”

Can often be found: Stuck in between two spreadsheets

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Hans is our money man. At nearly two meters tall, he towers above, well, some of us, but you’d hardly notice because he’s always sitting in an office chair! We find it slightly amusing that his last name is “de Penning”, similar to “de Penningmeester”, which means “treasurer”.

Why are you working at Amber?

“I’ve always had the ambition to work with cars. At first, I wanted to be a car designer, and then I ended up at university and started working at TU/ecomotive. There we got involved with a lot of companies and partners and saw more of the automotive industry. We found out that it was possible to not just work in the automotive industry but actually become a more involved part of it. After our student project we got a lot of traction with our ideas, and it was easy for us to just make the jump to our own car company.

At first, we started designing our own car as a remake of the DAF car – just a small electric car that would be much more fuel-efficient than current cars. But then we thought, well that’s not the future of mobility. Cars are cool – they represent freedom. But in the meantime, we thought about what the future of mobility should look like, and we decided to become a part of it.”

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What do you think is the most important contribution that you bring to the team?

“I think that I’m ‘the one who’s more rational in making decisions’. I’m good at being the opposite of Steven, and I think that helps. We balance each other out. I’m a little bit more reluctant and hesitant, whereas he has a lot of ambitions. So that’s also the reason I’m in charge of the money [laughs].”

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What in your past experience or education do you think has prepared you to work at Amber?

“I think it’s the combination of what I did at the student team, and what I do now at FRANS prototyping. At TU/ecomotive, we were working with a large team on a complex system with a common goal, and that’s comparable with what we do at Amber. I was the team manager for TU/ecomotive, which means I was doing practically everything. I was partly responsible for everything that was designed and organized, plus all the money and sponsoring. The professional experience I learned at FRANS is also important – about being careful with budgets and what you spend on development, and working with customers and suppliers.”

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What have you learned so far at Amber?

“I think the most important thing I’ve learned is that the market determines your product. You can imagine from the outset how a product should be and work and what you think people should like, but in fact, you’re completely dependent on what people actually want. I think that’s the most important thing we’ve learned so far – that we have to adapt to the customer. We’ve changed the product, the pricing, and everything else related to it, based on what people want.

Another thing I’ve learned is how to work with two different kinds of budgets. At FRANS, we have a defined project, and at the end of the project we get paid. If we need more hours afterwards we get paid for those. So actually in that model you’re always working behind on the cash flow. But at Amber, we get money for something up-front (including in investment or subsidies) and we have to deliver afterwards. You have to be very careful not to over-spend. So you’re doing forward calculations.”

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What do you like to do in your spare time?

“That’s hard to say. Most of the time I’m at the office, also in the weekend. But that doesn’t matter because most of the time at work we’re doing things that I like anyways. You also become friends with the people on the team because you’re spending so much time together, so in the end you’re always doing things the people that you like. My work is my life. But that’s only possible for now because I don’t have a girlfriend [laughs]. It’s not that I’m addicted; I just like it. I don’t like to play video games, and I also don’t really do sports that much, so it doesn’t matter for me that a lot of my time is going towards my work. I go out for beers sometimes, but that’s mostly with colleagues too.”

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What’s a fun fact about you that you can’t learn from your LinkedIn profile?

“I don’t think you can learn much from my LinkedIn profile, actually. It’s pretty basic!”