André Hooijer

Head of Operations

André joined ISE in 2012. His role involves overseeing all operational aspects of the show as well as customer success activities.

What is your favourite memory from a previous ISE show?

It’s not one, but I have nine moments in mind that are similar. I have worked on nine ISE editions and I’m sure everyone who works in Ops will recognise this moment. Every year, after being onsite for eight days doing the build-up, we walk on the morning of show opening with the Ops team through the halls at 6:00 am. Nobody on the show floor yet. Complete silence before the storm. A couple of hours before, we walked through the same halls – hectic, waste everywhere – wondering how we can make it all happen before show opening. That transformation overnight is always magical. So many people involved and at the end it always works out. I look forward to that moment again.

What are you currently watching?

Las Chicas del Cable. It’s a Spanish Netflix series about four friends living in Madrid in the 1920s. As ISE has moved to Barcelona we have opened an office there; this gave me and my wife the opportunity to live in Barcelona. Watching Spanish series helps us to learn the language and to learn about the culture as well.

Do you have any pets?

Yes, we do. We have two small dogs: a Manchester terrier (Sadie) and a chihuahua (Dexter). They both love the sun so they like the move from Rotterdam (The Netherlands) to Barcelona very much, as far I can tell. And since Dexter has a Mexican background he is happy to practise his Spanish again😊.

If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which three would you pick?

• WhatsApp: It’s obviously the most important communication app, which is so important for staying in daily touch with my two daughters who live in Rotterdam. We have our regular calls but WhatsApp we use more frequently, of course.
• FotMob: This app shows all football matches in your favourite leagues. My team is Feyenoord Rotterdam and this way I don’t miss out. The app allows you to follow the Twitter feed during the match, see the line-up, statistics of the game, team and players, rankings, news etc.
• AD: It’s a Dutch news app which keeps me up to date on what’s happening in the Netherlands.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself that most people don’t know.

I lived and worked for three years in Spain a long time ago… I worked as an entertainer in hotels in Mallorca, Menorca, Fuerteventura and Tenerife. During the day I was a sport entertainer, doing all kind of sports with the guests like volleyball, football, shuffleboard, swimming games etc. In the evenings I used to perform on stage with the entertainment team. I did musicals dressed up as a marine; I played a cowboy in a Western show; I killed myself about 100 times on Chinese night where I had to do harakiri; and I dressed in drag and presented drag queen shows. All great fun and a time I will never forget.