Weg met Kanker

Patrick van Seumeren (1968-2015): Entrepreneur with life lessons

Patrick van Seumeren was 47 years old.

Together with his cousin Jan and uncle Roderik, Patrick van Seumeren was at the helm of Mammoet, a multinational in heavy crane and transport work, from 2006 to 2011.

'Patrick has made an important contribution to the expansion of our company in Canada and the Middle East, among other places,' says former technical director Jan van Seumeren (40).

'He was commercially strong and had sufficient technical knowledge to serve our customers well.' Patrick van Seumeren died of cancer on Wednesday, November 4. He was 47 years old.

Perseverance

At the age of 12, Van Seumeren already did vacation work at the family business that took over Mammoet in 2000. After studying economics at the University of Amsterdam and logistics at the HTS, he rose to become operational director.

'He was the link between commerce and operations,' says nephew Jan. 'With his positive attitude, Patrick saw opportunities everywhere and fought for the last euro. He never gave up.'

After the sale of the family shares to SHV in 2011, Van Seumeren was too young to retire. He started a cattle ranch in Paraguay with friends and temporarily settled on Bonaire with his wife Kris while waiting for their house in Verbier, Switzerland to be built.

'Patrick was a fixer,' says Kris (47) from Verbier. 'If he had something in mind, it happened.' As a gesture for a friend who had a kite school on Bonaire, he came up with Kite Ride, a sponsored event that made the expensive kite sport available to poor children on the island.

Don't talk, just do it

The tropical years at Mammoet had been a hard lesson: not to talk, but to polish. Kris: 'He could be tough, but he was full of good intentions and was super generous. Patrick liked to help other people.'

Van Seumeren loved kiting and skiing, had his racing license and enjoyed diving. In 2014, he and Kris traveled through South America and they went kayaking in Antarctica. As a lover of Italian wines, he wanted to buy a vineyard in Tuscany, but decided against it when he was diagnosed with cancer in October 2014. The same applied to the plan to start a business again with Jan.

With her company Boven, tax specialist Ester Böinck (42) ran his family office in recent years. 'He was a cheerful and smart bon vivant who got the most out of life.'

Away with Cancer

Shortly after his diagnosis, he founded the Weg met Kanker Foundation, which enables cancer patients without means to spend a fully catered weekend with their loved ones, free of charge.

Convinced that he would recover, Van Seumeren worked with Denise Larsen (44) on a book in which he wanted to apply eight lessons from the business world to his dealings with cancer.

'Lessons like “No doesn't exist”. And: “Learn something new every day”.' Despite his illness, Van Seumeren went parasailing in Switzerland last summer. Just before his death he said: 'I can't and don't want to die. I love life too much.'