In over a decade as strategist and innovator at KPN, the Dutch telecom incumbent, Jan Rijk fathered such projects as the API Store and the IoT Academy, connecting all the corporate silos with a natural ease. Jan Rijk is not only an experienced professional, but also a creative, out-of-the-box thinker who can shift paradigms in order to create value propositions for a company.

Having grown up in a rural area, Jan Rijk has a weak spot for anything Agri & Food. Although educated in Business Administration, Economics, Philosophy and Sociology, he remained true to the geek part within himself. He truly believes we could create a world of abundance with new technology. There is one prerequisite, the only way forward to be able to do so, is sharing. Be open but do not give away corporate secrets. This is exactly the sweet spot where APIs kick in.

Jan Rijk has been an API evangelist within telco space for years, combining OTT (over the top) and OTN (over the network). Showing the way forward to such a revised telco environment in 2025 is his personal ambition.