Name: Joep Sloot 

Function: COO 

Joined: End 2015 

Favorite quote: "We didn't do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost" - Nokia 

Can often be found: At the carwash 

Joep is probably one of the most efficient and organized members of the team, which I guess you have to be in order to be COO. Always trying to avoid the spotlight, he says he never wanted a blog written about him, but we made one anyways. So here goes.

Why are you working at Amber? 

“Personally, I think I’m most driven by the slow speed at which things are happening especially in the automotive industry, but also in mobility in general. If you look at the past 100 years, not much has changed. Everybody still has their own car, and those cars haven’t changed much either. You’ve got nice touch screens now, but that’s about it. I think that what we’re doing at Amber can speed things in the industry up a lot. 

So that’s my philosophical reason. My practical reason? I can bike to work.”

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

“Execution. That’s always how I’ve worked with Steven, Hans, and Frank as well. We think up a lot of stuff together, and I’m the one who takes it a step further and thinks about how you can accomplish it. Steven is notoriously bad at that, which is why he’s a good CEO [laughing].”

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

“My year at TU/ecomotive building cars was really helpful. You learn stuff like how a team works together, how to manage and lead people, and how you can accomplish something big in reality. Steven and I also used to have our own production company called Posted, and we’ve learned a lot there as well.”

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What have you learned so far in the team? 

“One of the things that keeps coming back to me is that you’re never done with something even when you think you’re done. Another thing is that the amount of energy that you decide to put into something is directly related to the result that comes out. You can ‘take care of something’, like for example to just sending an email about it, or you can decide not to stop until it’s really taken care of, as in ‘finished’”.

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What do you like to do in your spare time?

“Am I allowed to say, ‘getting my hands dirty working on my old car?’ I have a car [laughing]. But I’m getting rid of it soon because the city is turning my neighborhood into a paid parking zone, and it’s going to get too expensive for me to just have my car sitting there. I’m setting a good example for the neighborhood, I guess. No, but I do have a whole list of things I want to do to my car. Other than that, I don’t really have much free time outside of work.”

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

“My car is older than me (for sustainability reasons, of course)”.