Jan Willem Roël

I was born and raised in The Hague, the city of Peace, in the Netherlands. My family has a background of technicians and hospitality. Already at an early age, my father took me to the Delta Works, which started after the extensive flooding in 1953. After my study as a Civil engineer at the university of applied science, I started to work for Tetra Pak. The construction business attracted my attention again and started to work in the concrete industry. I developed my interest in R&D. One of the innovations was developing Polystyrene (EPS) as a construction material. First in the infrastructure as foundation for roads in areas with soft bottom (Geofoam) later as floating construction on water. In 2013 my own company FlexBase BV was started in the Netherlands. As a start-up I realised several projects in Europe, Middle East, and Asia. Resulting in 2021 with the subsidiary company FlexBase International Ltd. in Singapore. Developing floating construction was fulfilling my desire to work with the water challenge. We have overcome many difficulties, but all our efforts resulted in the FlexBase concept with two patents, building on water and re-enforce EPS. Building on water has become my life’s work.