Hans Poortvliet
Hans Poortvliet, CRP from the Netherlands is the originator of World Compliment Day heralded as the most positive day and celebrated March 1st annually. Hans Poortvliet has been active in business management for over 25 years. He held management and director positions at the RAI Exhibition center (Amsterdam), the Dutch Tourist Office (Chicago, USA), Steigenberger Kurhaus Hotel (The Hague), Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky (Amsterdam) and Performance Solutions (Amsterdam). He is currently active as managing director of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Chapter Holland, owner / founder of Waarderingsmanagement.nl (Appreciationmanagement), member of Recognition Professionals International (RPI) and one of the few ‘Certified Recognition Professionals' (CRP) in Europe. In 2000 Hans discovered by incident that almost all industry & business related internet domain names had been claimed in the Netherlands and Belgium except in relation to ‘complimenting’ people. Fully convinced that proper attention, recognition and appreciation of clients and employees ultimately make the real difference in almost every process and relationship, he decided to make it his mission to eradicate/change/solve this obvious business omission. In 2003 he initiated the National Compliment day in the Netherlands which has been held annually on March 1 ever since. The social aspect of the initiative attracts wide media interest year after year and was followed by a.o. Belgium in 2010 and Norway in 2011. In October 2010 Poortvliet successfully organized the first Recognition Management Conference in the Netherlands (Appreciation2010) after which he initiated the idea of a ‘World Compliment Day’ to be held yearly as of March 1, 2011.
