Reflecting on Piet van Nassau’s 29 Years: A Journey of Dedication at Colart
As many of you may know, Piet van Nassau is leaving Colart on the 3rd January 2024 after over 29 years.
How to describe Piet and his wonderful time at Colart?
A little-known fact is that Piet sold his very first Colart product in May 1982 when working in an art store – it was of course Winsor & Newton Artist Watercolour Ultramarine Blue in a 5ml tube. Piet joined Letraset in Holland in 1994 as Sales Manager, then took overall responsibility for sales and marketing for Letraset in Benelux, before joining Colart in 1998 as Sales and Marketing Manager for the region. Piet became General Manager of Colart Benelux in 2010, which also included the responsibility for the Distribution Centre in Rotterdam. Following the closure of the Rotterdam DC in 2014, which Piet led and managed with all the complexities that this brought, Piet transitioned to be the Benelux Commercial Director, before then becoming the Commercial Director for DACH in 2017. In 2018 he added the further responsibilities of Poland and Eastern Europe to his remit and then took on the role of Commercial Director for Northern Europe in 2020. Piet’s Colart journey ends as it began, with him selling a Winsor & Newton product to the same artist as he did back in 1982 only just this month.
Piet leaves so much of himself behind and Colart genuinely won’t be the same without him. Anyone who has met Piet, will remember his straight talking, self deprecating, action oriented way of being. Comex without Piet will be a very different place. I would like to personally thank him for all the support he has shown his team and his colleagues, as well as all those that he has mentored and coached. And finally a personal thank you from me – Hartelijk dank!
Gail Pasquier
Chief Commercial Officer
I leave the last word to Piet :
