On 25 May, NXP had something to celebrate, Jean Schreurs, director of NXP Netherlands and member of The Economic Board looks back in a column.
What an absolute top day we experienced at NXP on 25 May! Her Majesty Queen Máxima, as honorary president of the Koning Willem I Foundation, visited the NXP Semiconductors site in Nijmegen.
The occasion was the winning of the Koning Willem I prize by NXP, in the Large Company category. Also present were chairman of the jury Niels Onkenhout, Commissioner of the King in Gelderland John Berends, and Mayor Hubert Bruls of Nijmegen. The visit was combined with the 70th anniversary of chip production in Nijmegen.
We had put together a broad programme where we were able to give the queen an impression of the technical tours de force in our labs and in our factory. Proud and active employees explained the actions and activities they initiate and carry out, and we highlighted in detail the NXP collaboration with student teams and ArtEZ students.
In addition, the queen watched several live demonstrations provided by TU students and others, such as the electric racing car InMotion and a solar-powered self-sufficient camper.
We also highlighted NXP's support for technical education with the Composing and Computational Thinking project. The background to this is that composing and learning to code require similar skills. Children from group 6 of primary school de Klokkenberg in Nijmegen and from Junior Technovium jointly composed a piece of music in a special way, which top pianist Daria van den Bercken played live. The children also provided the matching accompaniment in colour, movement, rhythm and form. They used Computational Thinking methods and NXP's Micro:bits and servo motors, among others.
All in all, it was a festive, sun-drenched day, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Above all, I felt a great sense of pride – in our 70-year history and in everyone at NXP who demonstrates day in, day out that, with great dedication and team spirit, anything is possible. This enables us to continuously develop and manufacture chips that make cars more fuel-efficient and safer, reduce energy consumption in homes, and enable medical breakthroughs.
And I am also proud that NXP is fully embedded in society; we are deeply involved in education, we maintain active links with various levels of government, and we have a large network of companies and institutions with which we collaborate.
Winning the Koning Willem 1 prize is great recognition for what NXP has achieved in the past 70 years and means a lot to our company and our employees, in and outside the Netherlands!
