The trusted advisor: An Ynvolve 15-year anniversary interview with Roland van Mourik

Roland Van Mourik
The attorney

‘New companies followed, the business kept growing.’

Roland van Mourik

Can somebody look like an attorney? We are definitely not into stereotyping, but you may think of a woman or man in a suit. Someone with a briefcase. Maybe a little stiff, a tad boring, perhaps. Roland van Mourik proves that image is a huge cliché. He doesn’t meet any of the descriptions above. The only hint that betrays his profession might be the neat paper with important data he printed to prepare for our interview. Just in case. You can take the attorney out of his suit, but he remains an attorney all the same.

Roland takes a glance at his notes and says the year was 2001. The year he joined Hekkelman Notarissen in Nijmegen, joining forces, among others, with Lonneke, at the time Martijn Niessen’s wife. This Martijn used to drop by once in a while in those days to pick up Lonneke. Nice guy, ok, but Roland only got to know him better – a glance at the notes again – in 2006. That year a limited company had to be registered, and Roland took care of it. That’s when it started. And it went faster than Roland would have thought. New companies followed, Lonneke started working for Martijn; man, the business kept growing.

And Roland assisted with creating the structure; he did the stuff attorneys are supposed to do. Nowadays, they talk less. It’s not needed, says Roland, everything is in place. But when asked, he is Martijn’s trusted advisor, offering support and advice. How often? Maybe a few times a year, but they always make time for it. Martijn’s company may be a success; however, Roland finds that didn’t change him in the least. He is still a sympathetic guy. A social fellow, to his friends as well as to his employees. That’s what Roland deems important, that aspect. After all, he says, ‘als je niet kan delen, kun je niet vermenigvuldigen’ – if you cannot share, you cannot grow.