Frank VAN DE VEN

Frank van de Ven was born in the Netherlands in 1959. Started professional career at Philips in 1983. Moved to General Electric Plastics HQ in 1986. Was the Commercial Director for High Five Health Promotion (corporate Health & Fitness programs) till 1995 – set up the High Five Franchise Formula for the commercial club market in 1993.

Started Life Fitness career in 1996 as the EMEA Marketing Director (responsible for Life Fitness Benelux, Life Fitness Export and be the liaison between Europe and the US). In 1997 Augie Nieto and Herman Rutgers promoted him to General Manager Life Fitness Benelux. In 2000 was asked to lead the conversion from the distributor in Spain to a Life Fitness Iberia subsidiary. In 2004 was promoted to Managing Director Life Fitness C-EMEA (Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa) – 8 subsidiaries and 32 distributors. In January 2008 was promoted to Vice President Life Fitness EMEA – 9 subsidiaries (including the UK) and 32 distributors. 

He was a columnist for two trade publications (3 years). He was also a presenter at several conventions (six times at the EFAA convention, OHRA convention, De Kooijman Group Convention); also a board member for AHOY from 2002 – 2005.

Question & Answer:

- EHFA:  "Why is it important to have a European Association for the European fitness industry and what do you feel should be the priorities for EHFA over the next three to five years?"

- Frank van de Ven:  "We are facing some serious economic turmoil. This has the potential to be a real crisis, far worse than in the US. Without concerted action on the part of the ECB and the European countries that are relatively strong, much of Europe could fall further into what would feel like a depression.

We are going to find out this year whether the European Union is like the Three Musketeers. Are they "all for one and one for all?" or is it every country for itself? My hope is that it is the former. Dissolution at this point would be devastating for all concerned, and for the world economy at large. However, getting all the parties to agree on what to do will take some serious leadership, which does not seem to be in evidence at this point.

Within the European fitness industry we need to act as “all for one and one for all” – we need to get “united”. EHFA is in my opinion the ideal organization to make this happen so that our industry speaks with a strong single voice within the European Union.

As the deficit in each and every country will increase (far above what was agreed upon in Maastricht – deficit < 3%)  we will see some pressure on health care costs in the next couple of years– see plans presented by President Obama. This puts our industry in an ideal position – there needs to be more focus on prevention rather than cure – but in order to get there we still have to improve the credibility of our industry. We have to recognize that the success of our business is dependent on the consistent performance of our employees in delivering services to our customers. EREPS is there for in my opinion a must have.

Based on the above I see the following priorities for EHFA in the next 3 to 5 years are:

• represent our industry towards the European Commission and other non EU member European countries in regards to topics like funding, legislation, standards, VAT, etc.; 
• establish strong relationships with National Governments via National Associations – share best practices with National Associations; 
•  raise the credibility of our industry by raising the health club standards – this will also improve our relationship with GPs, hospitals, Insurance Companies etc.;

Frank van de Ven was elected to the Board of EHFA at the Annual General Assembly in Essen on 22 April 2009.


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