Employee Spotlight: Riding for a Cause
Employee #6.
Coming up on his 10th anniversary.
A career service management veteran.
An avid bicycling enthusiast.
Those are just a few of the many ways to define Xurrent’s GM of EMEA, Martijn Adams.
Since starting at Xurrent in 2015, Martijn has spent 5+ years as the Director of EMEA, followed by nearly 3 years as our Chief Customer Officer (CCO). He’s approaching the 6-year mark in his current role as GM of EMEA.
Over the past decade, Martijn has grown Xurrent’s partner business, developed strong customer relationships, and led the annual Connect conference. He is excited about the company’s continued growth, the product and architecture, and being a “disruptor in a mature ITSM industry.”
When not “nerding out” on Xurrent, this Netherlands-based GM can be found on his bike.
Bikes are a core part of Dutch culture. In fact, the Netherlands is known to have the highest bicycle density in the world — nearly 24 million bikes in a population of ~18 million, or 1.3 bicycles for every person.
In proper Dutch form, Martijn’s family has 9 bikes between the 4 family members, a 2.25 bike/person ratio (nearly 2x the average). Overachievers! Over the last decade, biking has played an even more critical role in Martijn’s family.
In 2011, Martijn’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. After a hard-fought battle, Martijn and some friends participated in the Alpe d’Huzes cancer fundraiser for the first time in 2015.
Alpe d’Huzes is a play on words, as the mountain’s name is Alpe D’Huez, and ‘zes’ is the Dutch word for 6. People cycle up the mountain as many times as possible; most do it twice, but some go an astonishing six times!
Similar to their loved ones battling cancer and undergoing treatment after treatment, riders have to go back up the mountain time and again, exhibiting true resilience and mental fortitude.
Martijn’s wife wasn’t physically able to partake in the 2015 ride, and Covid-19 delayed their 2021 10-year cancer diagnosis ride, so 2024 was their year!
The ride is equal parts emotional and exhilarating. Spectators line the mountain with candles in the early morning of race day — a true group effort where volunteers “help each other carry them up the mountain.” Bikes are decorated with photos in tribute to loved ones, with riders often chatting as they ascend the mountain (again, 4x). Martijn rode next to a man on a little girl’s bike in honor of his 14-year-old daughter, who tragically passed away from cancer.
This year’s event comprised 5,000 participants who collectively raised 19 million Euros. Martijn and his wife were part of a group of 10 riders who summited the mountain and raised 20,000 Euros collectively.
“On brand” for Martijn, he kept the entire company up-to-date on his progress with each climb, messaging the company on Slack with photos and other updates as the Xurrent team cheered on.
Outside of his riding, Martijn coaches his two daughters’ field hockey teams. His passion, kindness, and work ethic are felt on the field, in the company, and with our customers. We are so proud of Martijn’s accomplishments and are excited to cheer him on for his next Road for a Cause.
Let’s look at a few other fun facts about Martijn, starting with how he got to Xurrent.
Martijn’s business journey: From service management to Xurrent
In his words, “I actually did marketing and public relations at University, and I had a job in marketing and PR for exactly one day— at a consultancy firm. After Day 1, the owner of the consultancy firm said, ‘Hey, come with me to our largest customer.’”
So Martijn did just that. After exactly one day, he pivoted his career path from marketing and PR to policy management consulting. He recalls enjoying performing quality management audits, which took him all around Europe.
His new employer operated out of a shared office space. Down the hallway was an ITIL consultancy firm. While having lunch one day in the shared space, “one thing led to another, and they hired me,” he said. Martijn recalls how funny this was: “I said goodbye to my company Friday, and then started my new job on Monday … in the exact same office, on the exact same floor — just down the hall.
This new (new) job began Martijn’s official career in service management, where he found himself implementing tools mostly from BMC. At this company, he moved from consultant to senior consultant to project manager, soon engaging in larger and larger projects worldwide.
Along the way, Martijn met the founders of Xurrent. Shortly after, he convinced his CIO to implement Xurrent — a huge success.
“From that moment on, I was basically doing Xurrent implementations everywhere. I realized it was time for a change, to do something that would challenge me more — to help me learn and grow.
“The people at Xurrent were really smart, and they certainly knew their way around service management.”
Martijn felt challenged again. In 2015, he joined Xurrent (then called Xurrent) as employee #6, the first non-product or developer-focused hire. “I was the most commercial person at the time!”
Martijn’s view on the evolution of Xurrent
Priority #1 for Martijn was to help grow the business.
But Xurrent was a startup without deep pockets. Martijn took a pay cut as a tradeoff to the challenge, the adventure. “I believed in the company and the platform and knew the benefits would be realized soon.”
Martijn focused on partnerships — those companies and people within his network — to start growing the business. Once they hired a Sales Director, it relieved him from being “immersed in everything.”
Fast forward to 2018, and the team was growing, with an increased focus on customers, partners, and pre-sales. “When you’ve been in an industry for some time, you must be careful not to have tunnel vision. Take off the blinders and be open to new ideas and concepts. Often, that leads to better results.
What does the future of ITSM hold (and how does Xurrent fit into the picture)?
Artificial Intelligence.
“AI is an absolute game changer in many ways,” Martijn said, partly because of the user experience it provides but also because of the efficiency gains and automation power. We are automating things that will no longer require people. This is not because we want to eliminate jobs, but instead to minimize repetitive work … leaving the team to focus on high-impact, meaningful work.”
Martijn believes that service management is cutting edge, especially with AI, as you can see it actually being implemented and used. “We have some really cool stuff within Xurrent and are building even cooler features constantly.
“It’s not easy to be a disruptor in an industry that is so mature, like IT Service Management (ITSM). To be a disrupter in space is something to be genuinely proud of. Xurrent is that disrupter, with architecture that is unique in our space.”
A bit more about the Netherlands and other non-work activities Martijn enjoys
As mentioned above, Martijn loves how the Netherlands is built around bicycling riding. “Everything is close by because of how small the country is. Everything just … works — the government, the city, the Internet. Sometimes I feel like it’s too easy.”
He also loves the United States for its outdoors. “The US has some of the greatest outdoors in the world, something I miss about the Netherlands. Everything here is urban — nowhere to see a lot of nature, nowhere to ride my bike for 3 straight hours without crossing a village or a city. We’ve traveled quite a bit to the US, mainly on the West Coast, and there is no shortage of outdoor adventures.
Martijn lists Yellowstone National Park as one of his favorite American destinations. He loves its beauty — animals, nature, hot springs, rivers, woods, waterfalls, etc.
He also loves traveling to Belgium, a country that is “culturally quite different.” But he really enjoys the food, the people, and the fact he can “cross the border in 5 minutes and be in a different place.”
His favorite European cities are Lisbon and Barcelona. Both are beautiful and clean, with fantastic food. And both are close to the ocean, a vibe Martijn loves — especially back in windsurfing and wind sailing days. In fact, when he was younger, his parents had a cottage near the sea where he’d go windsurfing quite often. Other than field hockey, that was his #1 hobby.
Martijn also has family in Switzerland and a brother in Austria, where his family and he can be found skiing and snowboarding. While he loves the mountains, the “coastal atmosphere is my preference as I like to look far away into the distance.”
He still enjoys playing field hockey (he even has been coaching for years and has a training degree). His two daughters also like the sport — the oldest being “very active, playing at a high level,” while his youngest daughter likes field hockey but prefers horses.
Finally, more about Martijn’s history with cycling
As mentioned, his wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 when their children were 3 and 1 year old. As you can imagine, it was a heavy time, “quite a period in our life.” A year after her diagnosis, several of their friends participated in the Road for a Cause fundraiser. The mountain is not an easy bike climb.
“The idea behind the fundraiser was that people with cancer also do not have “an easy climb. They are forced to go through these awful treatments, and they have no choice; they have to keep going.” Instead of merely biking to the top, they go up and down four times to represent the ongoing battle cancer patients face.
“Our friends participated the first year, and we went to cheer them on. It truly is an incredible event. Most of the participants are not professional cyclists. They are people like you and me who have stories — some awful, others with happy endings.
Martijn credits the money raised during this annual event that goes towards cancer research — along with Immuno- and chemotherapy — as the reason his wife is alive today, the reason his kids have a mother.
“Raising money also means others can survive. Every dollar helps save people later on. This event is not just physically grueling but also an emotional day filled with love and support.”
We thank you, Martijn, for all you’ve done for Team Xurrent AND cancer research. Keep on riding.