Hendrik Van Der Ham
Jul 28, 20232 min read
Hendrik van der Ham’s entrepreneurial spirit is intentionally grounded in human advancement and elevating others. Navigating on ships since his childhood exposed him to water dynamics and crossing bridges in the Netherlands across Northern Europe. His fascination with building physical bridges then evolved into a higher motivation to create conscious connections.
Today, that reality serves as a unifying theme across all his endeavours and businesses. As the founder of 'Bridges 2000', Hendrik builds real bridges with a deeper vision that extends beyond steel and concrete. His purpose in life is to link ships and unite people and build communities where people can aspire to excellence. The idea of how individuals’ resilience is critical to building sustainable and healthy ecosystems is something he has embraced his whole life.
Seventh is an iconic architectural marvel erected on a circular floating island off the coast of Dubai. Here, Hendrik envisions ‘The Other Way of Living’ where people escape self-condemnation and experience an elevated state of health, happiness and humanity in a sustainable ecosystem. The future of living.
This website not only provides a window into the universe of a unique individual who truly embodies the art of authenticity. It’s the inspiring story of someone who has gone from building a bridge at a time to creating incredible possibilities for humanity.
Hendrik van der Ham's vision for Seventh was born from 40 nights of lucid dreams, which crystalized into the concept known as "The Other Way of Living" Inspired by nature's innate interconnectedness, Hendrik sought to revolutionize how we work and live, leading to the establishment of the Seventh Project Development company.
'Resilient Sustainability' is a seminal book soon to be published, outlining a vision of our future living and how we create resilient individuals in sustainable societies.
Hendrik has had a long authoring career next to building his iconic companies and has been writing for more than two decades.
On November 1, 1997, Hendrik’s first book “Speaking is Silver, Silence is Golden” was launched.
The 14 books of which 5 are published have contributed thought leadership in humanity’s well-being, wellness, and sustainable life approaches.
Vision on Resilient Sustainable Societies
He was born in Utrecht and grew up on inland vessels. In addition to life on board, he worked on the ship from a very young age. There was a mentality of “tackling because the work has to be done”. He, therefore, helped build and sail ships in the family business from an early age. Via a position as a diver in the army and some wandering, he started his first own company: an advertising and marketing consultancy and subsequently wrote his first books on psychology. In 1999, he started BRIDGES2000, which builds and rents bridges in the Netherlands, with contractors, governments, and event organizations being the customers. This company has grown into a project development company. He wanted to realize his dream of building, living, working, and becoming different and started SEVENTH in early 2007. The name SEVENTH stands for breaking free from self-condemnation.
BRIDGES2000 initially focused on building and renting bridges but has since evolved into a project development company. The very first assignment for the company was to construct a 4.2 km long pedestrian bridge through the Himalayas, a pivotal project that solidified their principle of ‘Creating Safe Connections and Fit for Purpose.’ Over more than two decades, BRIDGES2000 has serviced the Event, Civil, Maritime, and Offshore sectors with owned assets, free of any loans. The vast experience garnered from bridge construction has further driven their enthusiasm into substantial construction projects.