After an extensive career in marketing and sales for high-tech multinationals as well as -startups, Richard now helps innovative startups and scaleups with advise, mentoring and coaching. Besides this, he is also active as member of subsidy advise committees, for a.o. the European Union, and in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
[table “27” not found /]Richard’s experience especially focusses on sustainability, smart materials, and smart systems. Both hardware as well as software and the combination of these.
With Techno-broker, he is active as a networker, specialised in a number of playing fields and technologies, focussed on connecting various parties. Representing parties with various backgrounds and products in an ecosystem has proven to be very efficient and effective: for one of his customers he is scouting at events for new partners and technologies, other customers ask him to represent them at their booth or by giving a presentation at events.
Since 2010, he has been very active in the world of medical and biotech, where both micro-electronics and photonics technologies are widely used for equipment as well as for a variety of consumables. Advanced lab-on-chip applications use microfluidics technologies in consumables which are created out of a whole host of materials (glass, plastics, silicon, paper,…) and feature a variety of specialised coatings.
One of the most successful applications of (power)electronics is electrical charging for automotive. Acting as business developer for one of his customers (scaleups), he is very involved in the field of electrical mobility (fast charging, direct solar charging, V2G applications,…), regularly visiting conferences and international events.
The fast growing Internet of Things (IoT) playfield acts more and more as a glue in today’s society, connecting all kind of applications together and creating new business opportunities for smart solutions. As an active designer and builder of for example sensor applications, he is very familiar with both the technology (platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32, ESP8266 and wireless communication via WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, etc.) as well as the resulting opportunities and business cases.
Affecting everyone’s life, Smart buildings, -homes and -cities combine innovative, new technologies and materials, mobility concepts and radically disruptive business plans. With Techno-broker BV, he is active as SME partner in the OPZuid/Stimulus ‘innovation Space Smart Cities’ project, coaching students of the Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e) and connecting companies (scalups), students and Smart City projects like Brainport Smart District.
For more information about his company go to the website.
Richard Bijlard will chair several sessions at the 2023 edition of Agrifood Innovation Event.