In memory of Korstiaan de Ridder

Korstiaan came to work for us at the end of his computer science studies. First as a side job during his graduation, but as soon as he graduated it became a real job. He had his own dry, sometimes dark sense of humor, but it wasn't hard to like him. Korstiaan was a very skilled developer who taught many colleagues the tricks of the trade. He was always there to help if anyone got stuck and was in his element when complete systems crashed and he could do his magic to get everything back up in the air. 

Korstiaan has meant a lot to his colleagues, to our companies and also to many of our customers in the almost 18 years that he has worked for us. He developed the back-end of complete platforms and always managed to deliver a well-functioning product. In his years with Hoppinger, he turned down many offers to work elsewhere. He once decided to leave but, to everyone’s pleasure, returned within a month. Last summer he made a real switch because he wished to focus on the development of just one platform. Fortunately, he didn't have to go far for that, because he was able to start working at Gites. Korstiaan had worked on that platform his entire career and now he could focus on it full-time. 

Korstiaan was very happy in his new role: he literally had his colleagues from Hoppinger besides him with whom he always had a good time and he could focus his expertise on Gites, the platform he sometimes called ‘his baby’. At Gites we were very happy with this switch, because Korstiaan could dedicate his attention to the further development of this platform. It is with great sadness that we have to conclude that this new role and, above all, his life, was way too short. Korstiaan, you will be deeply missed. 

Korstiaan had a young family, together with his wife Ina he had a son who is only one and a half years old. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, for whom this great loss is so sudden and incomprehensible.

On behalf of Hoppinger and Gites, 

Dirk Scheele, Gerard Pastwa, Giuseppe Maggiore, Theo Noordewier en Marijn Bom