Started back in 1958 by my dad, Nelis' Dutch Village celebrated our 50th Anniversary in 2008. After growing up working in the family business since I was old enough to push a lawnmower and clean the bathrooms, I re-joined the company in 1988 as one of the retail managers and M-O-D's. I took over the importing / wholesale division in 1990 and stayed with that through the 90's. The second generation took the reigns in 2000 after my dad retired. In 2004, I took over the bookkeeping and accounting functions from my brother, and in 2005 added President to the mix, and in 2007 added all the marketing responsibilities. Now if only had a little time...

Really just a small part of the whole Nelis' Dutch Village operation, attached to the Hungry Dutchman Cafe, we have embarked on a process to establish an identity for the Thirsty Dutchman Pub. Although the opportunity exists to make it a rockin', open til late, hottest-pub-in-town kinda place, we haven't made the mental jump to go there yet. For now, it is open when the Hungry Dutchman Cafe is, and that follows the theme park schedule, rather than being open year round like the wooden shoe shop. If we figure out a really unique hook, then we might try to keep her open...

This business opened as Laser Storm in Westshore Mall in 1995. 2800 sf of space, not enough money, and not knowing anything about the business I was getting into: I did it anyway. We struggled -bad- for the first year, and painfully began to learn what the FEC business was all about. We found enough success to know that the business could be something and began making plans to move out of the expensive mall and get the space that was needed. We moved across the street to the Holland Outlet Mall in June of 1998, and opened the new place in February of 1999. At that time, we changed the operating name to The Lost City.Now a 14,000 sf indoor family entertainment center, featuring laser tag, mini-golf, mini bowling, video game arcade with deluxe prize center, and Oasis cafe. Birthday parties, youth groups, sport teams, company parties, all kinds of groups looking for a fun event have a great time!

Holland Outdoor was a joint venture focusing on outdoor advertising media in and around the Holland, Michigan market.

I consulted through GLG's Consulting Management Platform, specifically in the Leisure and Tourism industry. I'm always happy to talk operations, but a lot of this consulting was with folks crunching numbers to know whether the stock will go up or down. Couldn't help with that very much.

Great training! I was supporting insurance agents using our computer systems to market our insurance products. So, I learned insurance (even got my license to sell it in Michigan - still got my plaid sportcoat to prove it!), computers, and marketing all at once.Also learned what I didn't like about big companies - politics and policies - and how much fun expense accounts can be...

I remember being in this dungeon-like room, loading programs to run on the mainframe, waiting to print reports by the bucket-full. I'm pretty sure nobody read the reports each day, or maybe looked for one little bit of information on page 432 of the printout, but heck, it wasn't my job to question it. I loaded up the programs to run, then sat there and waited hours for them to print. Great time to study and do homework, and still get paid!My first experience with Cobol. Fortran. Big computer-y kinda stuff.