The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to serial Dutch entrepreneur Kees Koolen, whose latest company is battery manufacturer Lithium Werks.
After Kees Koolen and his motorbike somersaulted down a rocky hillside in Western Sahara in 2006, the local ambulance crew said there was nothing they could do to save his life.
“They said I would die for sure,” says Mr Koolen, looking back on the crash. “So they didn’t want to do anything.”
At the time the Dutch businessman was 41, and had taken time off from his job as chief operating officer at travel firm Booking.com to compete in a long-distance motorcycle race in north Africa.
He was nearing the end of a day’s riding when, overtaking a car and another motorbike, he didn’t notice the sharp drop to the side of the road.
Plunging down, he broke 22 bones, and suffered serious head trauma after his helmet cracked open.
