Just like her colleague Albert, Sacha studied econometrics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she earned a Master’s degree in Analytics & Operations Research in Logistics. With her strong mathematical mindset, she loves converting real-world problems into mathematical models and then finding solutions. She is particularly drawn to the logistics sector, where those solutions often lead to concrete and tangible results.

In her first months at Modality, Sacha has mainly focused on getting to know our industry and on the development of web-based dashboards. While colleague Cas investigated how we could structure data and dashboards within Modality in a more uniform way as part of his graduation project, Sacha is now working on translating that foundation into practical web-based applications. This allows customers to view their logistics data in a clear and visually appealing manner.

It immediately became obvious that Sacha was a quick learner. For instance, she scored a perfect 10 (!) on her React course, officially cementing her nerd status. She also completed a training course with a Modality partner on applying optimisation algorithms to logistics challenges. Behind the scenes, Sacha is currently working on dashboards that provide insight into areas such as transport volumes, terminal capacity and long-term trends.

In her spare time, Sacha enjoys visiting gyms, coffee bars, or both. If she isn't practising a futuristic sport like ‘Rocycle’ or ‘Reformer Pilates’, chances are she will be at a football stadium. With a sister and sister-in-law who (until recently) played for ADO Den Haag and family in England, she follows both national and international women's football closely. This young lady has also seen quite a bit of the world, exploring such destinations as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Tanzania. However, she also enjoys heading to the beach closer to home and can often be found along the coast at Scheveningen.

With a nice apartment in The Hague, challenging work and plenty of interests outside the office, Sacha is settling in well. Of course, it is only a matter of time before she discovers which city is truly the most beautiful in the Netherlands 😉.

This basic structure allows us to quickly move on to the next step: supplementing the BI module with a set of core KPIs and graphs that are relevant to all clients. Once this set has been completed, the uniform module is ready for wide deployment. In the future, this will allow us to adapt more quickly, improve our decision-making and extract more value from data – without technical barriers.

Cas enjoys the friendly atmosphere with his colleagues and appreciates our way of working. Previously, he completed a minor in Data Science and one in Machine Learning & AI. Computer Science ultimately appeals to Cas the most because he has a wide range of interests and, in his own words, it represents a middle ground among all these. And that is why we can now literally and figuratively call Cas our youngest team member. Reason enough for us to share some more personal information about Cas.

His broad interests are also evident in his personal life. For example, he enjoys a wide range of sports, from paddle tennis to fitness and from korfball to running. He also has a broad musical taste and we cannot pin him down to just one genre (which works out well for our annual outing to "De Vrienden van Amstel" [a major annual Dutch-language music festival, ed]). Now that he's completed his studies and is working fulltime, he is also keen to save as much money as possible: Cas has never been outside Europe and would love to see more of the world.

Fortunately, Albert is still content after all these years. In his experience, Modality is a stable employer that has experienced steady growth over the years. Albert appreciates the direct lines of communication and the fact that everyone knows about each other’s expertise and what to expect from one another. Over the years, the facilities have improved and the company offices have become more modern. At times, Albert can secretly get nostalgic about those early days though when the team was still very small and close-knit and everyone worked together in the same space. He also loved the company office at the Waalhaven, where the beautiful view of the ships out on the water kept him and his colleagues connected to daily practice.

In this interview, we look to both the past and the future. One thing that Albert would still like to do is work on optimisations and apply his mathematical perspective to this; how many movements a crane has to perform to move a container and in what order. Having worked on software solutions for inland container terminals and carriers for so long, he has become increasingly attuned to the requirements of users. Of course, nothing makes his day more than seeing someone use a product in practice that he has co-developed.

Due to the analytical nature of his job, Albert often finds himself ‘stuck in his head’. For about ten years now, he has found a way to get out of his head though; performing on stage. Albert is member of a Rotterdam-based theatre group and has participated in several performances. We were also able to admire him on the screen, when his theatre group (temporarily) switched to making video productions during the pandemic. Although Albert found this form of acting interesting, his true passion lies in performing on stage. Shooting movie scenes involves a lot of waiting and performing multiple takes for a single shot. On stage, everything must be done right the first time. There is constant interaction with other actors, which also involves a lot of improvisation. One day, Albert hopes to play the lead role or perform his own monologue. In the meantime, he is having a ball with our own puppet theatre ?.

Since then, Ronnie’s responsibilities have included handling questions and requests for the support department, carrying out installations, testing interfaces, preparing quotes, etc. Due to his programming background, Ronnie is able to check the code and also directly engage with customers on technical matters. He tackles smaller programming issues himself each day and interacts with customers after a new installation. The varied nature of his job, the contact with customers and the pleasant atmosphere are the main reasons why Ronnie has stayed with us for more than 25 years. Then, there are the parties and outings, of which he has fond memories. Some examples he mentions are the anniversary party that involved playing football at the De Kuip football stadium, the party aboard the SS Rotterdam and the trip to Barcelona.

Not only does Ronnie love parties and good food; this prankster is also always up for a joke. For instance, he recently swapped a boiled egg from Esmee's lunch for a raw one and ambushed Albert and Evert with sticky tape at the doorway as they arrived. Fortunately, most of Ronnie's ideas remain just that; ideas. In his own words, he wants to maintain a good atmosphere and not take things too far.

In his spare time, Ronnie can frequently be found on the sidelines of a football field cheering on his son. He also enjoys chasing goals whilst playing indoor football. Besides his son, he and his beautiful Costa Rican wife have a daughter who is studying Chemical Technology. Although Ronnie likes adventurous and active holidays, the most important thing to him is the well-being and health of his family. He requires little more to be happy.

When asked about his highlights of the past 15 years, Evert is especially proud of the further professionalisation that Modality has been through; particularly the development of the web applications and the relocation to the new premises. There have been some wonderful highlights in his personal life as well; the birth of his two sons was easily the most impactful event in that respect. Logically, he prefers to spend his free time with his family. In addition to quality family time, Evert also engages in activities that are quite unexpected. At the office, he takes great care to cultivate his image as someone who ‘would rather watch sports than work up a sweat himself’. However, this reputation has proved far from accurate and he is more adventurous than most people think. For example, Evert is actually a very passionate practitioner of winter and water sports. During the summer, he heads out on the water for windsurfing and water skiing. He also used to be a keen motorcyclist. As long as it moves fast and is outdoors, Evert seems to be up for it. We do suspect though that all those hours out in the sun have caused his blond hair to take on a somewhat silvery glow. Ask Evert though and he will stubbornly maintain that his change in appearance is mainly due to his job at Modality - particularly his close cooperation with Jan!

What Dominique has in common with his direct colleagues in the web department is that he is not really passionate about participating in sporting activities. Or, as he himself puts it in his down-to-earth manner: he ‘never really saw the need for it’ and he is ‘always glad when it’s over’. Watching sports however is a completely different story. Dominique is a big fan of Formula 1 and follows the races both on TV and live at the circuit; last summer, he went to Austria for the Austrian Grand Prix. As a young boy, he was already very passionate about cars and over the years he has accumulated an impressive collection of miniature and model cars. His absolute dream car is the Porsche GT3 RS. To make this dream come true, Dominique still has quite some programming to do though. However, we can already see his love for (race) cars in our parking lot, where his bolide with sports suspension and styling kit is a true shines like a diamond every day. It will probably come as no surprise that Dominique spends time behind a PC beyond office hours as well. When he is not watching Formula 1 in his spare time, he is improving his racing skills on an online circuit.

Dominique does not get his passion for cars and Formula 1 from his family. In fact, when Dominique wanted to go see his hero Schumacher when he was a boy, he was not allowed to because no one else in his family was interested. However, he will soon be able to fully indulge in his passion, because Dominique is moving into his own apartment. In recent months, he has worked hard to transform his home into a small bachelor mansion. Whilst fixing up his new house, Dominique is learning many things as well. His biggest source of pride in that respect is the new kitchen that he installed himself. Considering his age, what perhaps surprises us most about Dominique is his taste in music. Dominique is a fan of rock and metal (he hopes his new neighbours are too ?). For example, he recently scored tickets for the Iron Maiden concert at the GelreDome stadium. Contrary to what you might expect from someone who is surrounded by computers both at work and at home, Dominique enjoys this genre because, in his own words, this is music that is still really made by musicians and not glued together by PCs. In any case, we are looking forward to the housewarming, which, to say the least, promises to be very interesting.

Raymon is naturally attentive. As a teenager, he has held almost every job imaginable, from mover to scaffolding builder to commando in the Air Assault Brigade. However, the Rotterdammer only lasted three months in the military: apparently, they are less tolerant of chatterboxes. Raymon’s chattiness sometimes leads to nice things. As a 19-year-old taxi driver, he would always brighten his passengers’ days, even those embarking on less pleasant journeys. Patients returning from kidney dialysis were treated to three extra trips around the roundabout and exited the taxi feeling even more nauseous - but with smiles on their faces. Although Raymon is almost always cheerful (at least after 10:00 AM and following a double espresso) life has not always treated him favourably. For example, he contracted meningitis twice when he was younger; one episode almost proved fatal. Fortunately, he is still with us to inspire us with his positive mindset and zest for life!

When interviewing Raymon, it is easy to digress. However, most of us are curious about how Raymon is experiencing working at Modality and what spurred him to leave the proverbial golden cage after 23 years. Raymon states that his job at Modality meets his expectations; at the same time, he is positively surprised by what goes on behind the scenes. He currently manages the projects of around ten clients. He feels that the trust he is given as well as the interaction with Jan and Evert are the greatest benefits. Regarding his transition to a new job, Raymon says he was keen to start approaching terminal optimisation from the supplier’s side. According to him, this allows him to be more on top of innovations and increases his involvement in major market developments such as the introduction of the Secure Chain and the shift of issues from the seaports to the hinterland. Due to the smaller size of Modality as an organisation, Raymon is confident that he can have a greater impact. And when it comes to impact, his ambitions are high. Raymon sees himself becoming the new Evert when Jan eventually decides to hand over the reins. So in about 40 years, or when we have the locks and alarm codes changed over a weekend, we might see Raymon in the director’s chair ?.

Ultimately, Monika decides to study Technical Computer Science at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. When her marriage unexpectedly comes to an end, she does everything she can to graduate and become financially independent. And she succeeds! Monika joins Modality in 2010 and thanks to her German perseverance, she manages to complete her studies whilst working at the same time. Within Modality, Monika focuses on the office applications of customers and on internal projects. She does not specialise in one specific programming skill but is more of an all-rounder. Monika greatly enjoys performing different kinds of tasks. She is proud when she contributes to the development of a new product or a new function which benefits a large number of customers – and loves receiving their feedback. One example is the development of the Record Monitor, which makes it possible to view the change history. Whether Monika is programming on a five-minute project or a multi-day project: she tackles everything with the same systematic, precise approach.

While she was a young mother, Monika’s life may have been somewhat quiet, but in recent years she has become quite an adventurer. Her gradual transformation starts at the age of 45 as she takes her first ever plane ride during a company outing to Barcelona. Soon thereafter, she is literally pushing boundaries. From hikes through the Austrian mountains with her four-legged friend(s) to campervan trips to Germany, England and Norway, for example. Monika loves Norway’s natural beauty so much that she decides to go back and hike through the Hardangervidda. She has returned several times since. Sometimes with her son and daughter-in-law, but she also likes to venture out solo. During her hikes, she carries provisions for the entire journey and drinks melted snow. Just the very idea of this already gives the fast-food junkies among our colleagues nightmares. However, this adventure leaves Monika and her son wanting more and they decide to enrol in a bushcraft course in the Netherlands; among other things, they learn about edible plants, safely crossing a river, making a fish trap and tracking. She has not really been able to put any of these skills into practice yet though. The first lockdown is announced whilst they are on their way back from the course and we usually do not have to catch our food in the office (at most, we need to protect it from certain starving colleagues). According to Monika, her level of fitness is not what it was in Norway. We have our doubts about this though after witnessing this fit, fifty-year-old repeatedly overtaking her fellow runners from the office during the Harbor Run (is she that fast or are we just that slow?!?). Moreover, this lady who only started her career at a later age is still full of dreams and ambitions. For example, she aspires to develop an app that makes her daughter's daily life a little easier. We warmly applaud the pursuit of these kinds of experiences and we hope Monika will stay with us for a long time to come.