The Villagepump team
We are a small and dedicated team and outsource work when desirable; for example manufacturing, installations and local service. The core of the work; research, development, operations, sales and marketing is done in house. We would like to explain what drives us and why we do what we do. And we would like to briefly introduce the people who make Villagepump spin.
Why we do this
We want to make the world a better place. And we think we can contribute, a little bit. We consider mother Earth has a couple of big challenges ahead; for people, animals and nature to survive. For people there are three main challenges; growing food, produce (clean) energy and (drinking) water…. Water is key for life and although there is plenty of water on the planet, just a very small amount is suitable for consumption. Villagepump is into the transition of water into drinking water.
How we work
We have the knowledge, plans and resources to develop our own line of solutions that we independently can manufacture and market. We look globally for local partners (always support your local economy!) to work with. Our solutions not only bring safe drinking water, it also helps reducing the environmental footprint by eliminating the need for plastic bottles. Our focus is on off grid, smaller, sustainable and affordable solutions.
What we do
The Villagepump 500 water purifying solution, filters bacteria and viruses and helps fighting and preventing diseases such as Cholera, Diarrhoea, Dysentery and Hepatitis.
The Villagepump 500 is affordable, proven, reliable, maintainable and easy to work with. Wherever for whatever reason water could not be purified to drinking water standards (too remote, too complicated product, lack of funding), Villagepump has the solution today.
Rob van Opdorp
Rob van Opdorp studied process-control technology and after a short career as a technician in Chemical industry he studied industrial design in the Netherlands, Germany and France.
He started his career in Paris in 1984 and worked since then on innovative design & engineering for the industry in various fields, from household products and agriculture machinery to electric power engineering and water purification.
In his entire career he was looking for better ways for purification for just as well drinking water as wastewater.
In 2008, 25 years of experience in design, engineering and manufacturing came together in the creation of the Villagepump 500 which in the same time resulted in the creation of the company which carries the name of this purification marvel.
Since then Rob an his partners continued improving the product and work on next generation purification systems.
Providing technology to purify and recycle water in order to make it abundantly accessible around the globe is what he strives for, as such continuously pushing technological boundaries.
Maarten Willems
Maarten has over 20 years working experience in mechanical product development and engineering, working on a large variety of products. For Villagepump he has developed the Villagepump products together with Rob van Opdorp. Since the start of the company he spend a lot of time improving the products, finetuning the assembly and testing facility.
He gained a lot of field experience by visiting our distributors on all kinds of locations around the world. User feedback is key for improving our product and expending the lifetime of our productrange. You can contact Maarten At mw@villagepump.org or +31-6-19 200 140
Ferdinand ter Heide
Ferdinand ter Heide is one of the co-founders of Villagepump and still acts as chairman. He is a typical entrepreneur and he has set up successful businesses throughout his career. Next to a busy professional career he also worked for organisations like Greenpeace. He is a fanatic blue water sailor (from Cape Horn to Spitsbergen, and back) and has an genuine interest in nature and the environment, which explains why he invested in Villagepump. In his spare free time he likes to watch wild life birds and his favourite hobby is cycling.
Joost de Waard
With a back-ground as industrial designer, a career at a design agency and Siemens Netherlands and a great passion for product development, Joost joined Villagepump in 2012. First as project manager product development organising the development of the proof of concept of the very first Villagepump 500 into the stage of prototyping, manufacturing and testing. Later on moving to the position of chief operations officer becoming responsible for product development, manufacturing, sales support, logistics and back-office.
Joost stood also on the base of setting up the network of local distributors who represent Villagepump worldwide. You can contact Joost at jwa@villagepump.org or +31 27 08 55 39.
Bert Jansen
Bert joined us this year at the sales and marketing department. He has been in commercial jobs for almost 30 years and he likes working with engineering and product management departments in order to create a successful value proposition. What he likes about the Villagepump product is the relative simplicity of the design. Contributing fighting one of the biggest global challenges, safe and clean drinking water for all, motivates him dearly. In his social life he likes sports (boot camp & boxing) and he works as a volunteer for an animal welfare organisation in Amsterdam. His hobbies are sailing, reading and learning as much as possible about ‘history’. And he likes wine. You can contact him at bertjansen@villagepump.org and +31 6 2080 9327.
Piet Demmer
Educated as a ships engineer, Piet worked as a technical marine officer for several years on merchant ships. Started on-shore as a technical sales engineer in 1982 in the market for flow regulation equipment. In 1988 he started as an international sales engineer in the high tech, innovative mechanical equipment for the car tyres production industry. Working with accounts like Dunlop tyre, Michelin, Continental and Hankook tyre.
In 1997 he made the switch to the water related market , working as an international sales and marketing manager in the Middle East and Far East. The water projects were related to customers in the Oil, Gas and Power industries for the realisation of the total sea water intake systems for cooling-water purpose. From 2018, Piet retired and now wants to spend his technical knowledge and international sales experience for those who need access to safe and clean drinking water.
About
Villagepump brings safe water to communities that have no access to water for drinking, cooking, washing and other applications that saves and improves lives.
Sustainability and affordability are key to success.
Villagepump
Lisdoddelaan 80
1087KA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
CoC number: 53303857
VAT-ID number: NL850830539B01
info@villagepump.org
+31 (0)6 20 80 93 27