Ben spent his early years in Holland (Eindhoven), where he became a qualified Electrical / Electronics Technician and worked for the first 10 years with Philips, the giant international electronics company. At our shed, you’ll mostly find him up a ladder - he is the one who does anything to do with electrical work, as he holds a ‘Sparkie’ license. [Please don’t ask him “what’s the weather up there?”… he has heard it many times before… ☺ Ed.]In 1983, he moved with his family to New Zealand (“for two years” – haven’t we heard that before!), where he worked in Industrial Automation for 7 years, then started his own company, specialising in Voice – Data – Radio communications. In 2002 he sold his business and came across the ditch to Australia, where he specialised in Nuclear Medicine, before coming to the Gold Coast in 2013, continuing in his technical career in keeping medical electronics working.
Ben’s interests are very wide: Firstly, he reads “anything to do with technology” [some people might call him a ‘Nerd’… Ed.] Electronics is not just his profession, it is one of his hobbies too. He is an avid photographer – “I have about four cameras... or so” he commented. Add to that Alternative Energy, Environmental Science (in 2014 he won a federal award for his work in cleaning up a waterway in the estate where he lives), even small scale food production. So it’s all technology? Oh no! Ben also sings in a choir (contemporary), and for relaxation listens to 60’s and 70’s Rock n Roll (Beatles, Clearwater Revival), reads good novels (Jeffrey Archer is his favorite author) and (ahem) books, internet posts and magazine articles on Nuclear Fusion, Particle Physics…