On 31 October 2018, Computable celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Therefore, a special prize was granted during the ICT fair Information Security and Data & Cloud Expo: De Gouden Computable Award. The award was offered to a person or organization that had a great impact on Dutch IT in the last fifty years. Computable’s readers voted for their candidate, and Jan Baan came out as the winner.
The event was hosted by Computable Chief Editor Sander Hulsman in an informal setting; the program was a great line up from IT History to IT Future with computer historian Gerard Alberts, IT Entrepreneur Jan Baan and tech-enthusiast Vincent Everts. In the official Award ceremony Sander Hulsman stated that it was a very hard decision who or which organization deserved this award the most. The final decision was made based on which person had the most impact on the Dutch IT Industry, but also what this meant for many companies both in the Netherlands and globally. Jan Baan was called onto stage to receive De Gouden Computable Award!
Jan explained he considers De Gouden Computable Award as a recognition for ‘ forty years ups and downs’. He mentioned the Boeing deal being the peak of his career. This deal has also influenced the world regarding ERP, Jan believes.
Currently, he sees himself as a pilot, leading us to industry 4.0. He thinks that in the future, the knowledge worker will be the most important asset in a company. Especially innovations in smart industry will play a major role.
Later that day, Jan was congratulated by the visitors and his colleagues, and distributed and signed his book Mijn Leven als Entrepreneur: Winst door Verlies. In this autobiography, Jan describes his forty years of experience in the IT industry.
Computable had a short interview with Jan Baan off stage as well, the video can be viewed here.
