Chosen by an awards committee, the recipient is an innovative industry leader who combines entrepreneurial drive with a transatlantic focus.
The Holland on the Hill Freddy Heineken Award is part of a new effort to celebrate the values that the Netherlands and the United States have shared for more than 400 years, including Freedom, Justice, and Entrepreneurship.
Holland on the Hill is a joint project of the Netherlands Embassy, the Dutch Caucus, the Netherlands business community and the Netherland America Foundation to strengthen the ties surrounding these values on an economic, political, and cultural level.
Here is my short acceptance speech after receiving the award from the Dutch Ambassador to the United States Birgitta Tazelaar (Photo):
"Hallo iedereen. Thank you so much for acknowledging both KnowBe4 and myself with this prestigious award.
I am originally from the Netherlands, born and raised in Amsterdam, I made my way to the U.S. to pursue my dreams as a high-tech entrepreneur in 1994, but did not forget my Dutch Business DNA. (do not burn money…)
I build companies. KnowBe4 is my 5th startup, and the second cybersecurity one I built from the ground up here in the U.S. Although I have been a U.S. citizen for many years now, I still have deep roots in the Netherlands and I highly appreciate this recognition of “The Holland on the Hill Freddy Heineken Award”, with special gratitude to The Dutch Embassy, the Dutch Caucus, the Netherland-America Foundation and all their corporate partners.
At KnowBe4, it is our mission to empower your workforce to make smarter security decisions. That in turn helps you to protect against cyberthreats and better manage the ongoing problem of social engineering.
With the rapidly increasing global cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure, government agencies, businesses and nonprofits large and small, we believe the mission we have is of the utmost importance. However, we have a LOT more work to do to help organizations globally increase their workforce knowledge and awareness to create a strong security culture and mitigate human cyber risk.
I speak on behalf of all Knowsters when I sincerely thank you for this recognition, we are honored and privileged to receive the Holland on the Hill Heineken award. Thank you very much."
This is the page of the Dutch Embassy with the announcement. At the bottom of the page is a link with more pictures of the event. Here is an article in the Dutch IT Channel.