Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Restoration Business

Meet Jeroen Jochems, one of Polygon's innovative entrepreneurs. Previously the chief leader of Polygon-owned VANWAARDE, Jeroen now drives innovation within Polygon. Beyond developing businesses, he enjoys acting in theatre plays. Jeroen’s story is a captivating journey you won’t want to miss.  

VANWAARDE stands as one of Polygon’s subsidiary branches, specializing in document, art, and valuable artifact restoration. Before its integration into Polygon, Jeroen led VANWAARDE for approximately 16 years. “VANWAARDE is my family’s business, and I held the CEO role for about 16 years. During this tenure, I witnessed substantial growth before our integration into the Polygon Group,” Jeroen shares. Since the acquisition, his focus shifted to business development, constantly seeking ways to expand Polygon's services. 

A unique after work hobby 

Jeroen is from a small town in the north-eastern parts of the Netherlands, and this little town has an active community theatre, which features a few plays each year. For many years, Jeroen has been a part of this community theatre, where he engages in something he loves—acting. “I love acting, and each chance I get to act in our local plays, I take. My favorite roles to act are humorous roles, where comedic timing is the most important”, he proudly shares.  

Running a business in a highly specialized market 

In a niche market like specialized restoration, expansion can pose challenges. “To be able to grow and expand the business, I was always looking to make strategic acquisitions when I was running VANWAARDE. Over the years we did take over some other similar companies, and we grew a lot organically”, says Jeroen. However, success is not something that has come easy, a lot of hard work and determination was needed. “Being the leader of a company requires a lot of different skills, especially social skills. My acting has helped me with this, since it has made me more comfortable in front of a crowd. I can present VANWAARDE’s work in front of a large group of important stakeholders without getting nervous, thanks to my years of acting”, he says. 

When looking back at his eventful career, Jeroen shares what his favorite part about working at VANWAARDE was: “After for example a fire, when we are called to restore irreplaceable materialistic things, such as family photo albums, people don’t think a good restoration is even possible. Seeing how happy and impressed the families were when we managed to restore their emotionally significant artifacts really made my day”, Jeroen says.  

Several years after the acquisition of VANWAARDE, Jeroen can enjoy seeing how his company now has been successfully integrated into the Polygon structure. At the same time, he himself can instead focus on driving innovation and development forward, within the entire Group.