people - New breed of manager does not retire

This evening Ari van der Steenhoven, China-manager of the middle-sized chemical company DSM from the Netherlands will formally retire after ten years in China, very formally, because he belongs to a new breed of managers in China, that sees new opportunities in this country.
"When you ever quote me, you are in deep trouble," he told me ten years ago when we met for the first time. Since then things have changed and Ari participated in live radio broadcasts and was interviewed for my book on '15 misunderstandings about China and the Chinese'. (Only in Dutch at this stage.)
He has put China on the DSM agenda and was one of the first foreign managers who refused to leave China after 2, 3 years. Most foreign managers did leave China the moment they started to understand the country, destroying much valuable knowledge. DSM in China is five times bigger than five years ago and intends to grow in an even higher speed.
Ari will stay on in China, as retirement is not really on his agenda yet. He is part of also a new trend, experienced China managers who do not go back to their own country or a tropical island, but keep on using their experience here.
Publicity is still not his favorite hobby (although he could do it very good). Even for this internal publication they had to look very well to find even a picture! (See the last page).