화란에서 온 편지 An E-mail from Nederland

나와 1980년대 초부터 알고 지내온 화란 사람이 있다. 그는 현대자동차가 처음 1977년에 해외법인(Hyundai Motor Holand)을 설립하여 2 년 동안 운영하다 청산한 법인을 인수한 회사 (Greenib Car B.V.) 의 월급쟁이 CEO 였던 Mr. Bert Kreber다. 그는 현대자동차 네델란드 대리점 CEO로만 20년 넘게 일하며 한국에도 수 없이 출장 방문했던 적극적인 비지니스맨이다.

I know a Dutchman who was CEO of Hyundai's distributor in the Netherlans, Greenib Car B.V, for over 20 years. He and I have known each other since early 1980's and became close friend for that long time.

 

그는 내가 1997년에서 1999년 초까지 미국현지 법인장으로 있을 때도  캘리포니아로 나를 방문할 정도로 가까운 친구가 되어있었다. 그는 나와 동갑으로 현직에서 물러나 은퇴생활을 꽤나 적극적 으로 엔죠이 하고있다. 그는 내가 기아자동차에서 퇴임했을 때 나를 화란으로 초청해 나는 그 친구 덕분에 며칠을 지낸 일이 있다.

He made a visit to me at HMA in Fountain Valley, California in 1998 when I was CEO of the whole north American operations of Hyundai Motor Company. After I retired from Kia, I visited the Netherlands on his invitation in 2003 and I spent several days with him. Like this even after he and I retired from each position we have kept in touch for years with warm friendship.

 

그런 그가 엇그제 이메일을 보내왔다. 한 동안 소속이 끊겨 궁금하던 차에 그의 메일을 보니 많이 반가웠다. 사진 까지 동봉해 왔는데 그의 최근 생활이 상당히 인상적이다. 다름이 아닌 자전거 탄다는 것이다. 작년에는 자전거로 헝거리를 일주했고, 지난 주에는 스위스 제네바에서 출발해서 프랑스 칸느 근처에 있는 자기 집까지 1,000 미터가 되는 산길을 건너면서 700km를 6일에 걸쳐 자전거로 달려 갔다고 한다. 지난 6월에는 우리나라에서도 잘 알려진 뚜르 드 프랑스 자전거 경기 코스 중 하나인 몽 벵뚜를 자전거로 올라 갔었다고 한다. 이런 모든 이야기가 내년부터 자전거를 시작해볼까 하는 나에게 큰 자극을 주고있다. 지금 당장 사버려?

He emailed me with photos of himself and his family. As I have considered cycling since some time ago and his email with pictures showing his sports activities with biking impressed me a lot and encourages me.

From: b.kreber@online.nl
To: mjuhn@hotmail.com
Subject: greetings from Holland

Hi Mark,

It has been some time that we had contact. I apologize for taking so long to give you a reaction.

I kept this email to answer you, but time flies and I have been rather busy, but undoubtedly has a remark to answer you.
I see you still very active on the mountain climbing. and have seen the nice photo’s.

Actually I do not know so much about all those social media, but this morning took time to study more on the facebook how it worked.

Last year I have been very busy training on the racing bike. Like I told you last year I made a trip on the bike around in Hungary, just last week we started from Geneva ( where a friend of mine has a house) and with him we went on the bike to my house in Biot ( near Cannes) where I am now. 700 kilometres in 6 days, in the hills up to 1000 meters up and down, but it was a marvellous trip.

In June I did climbing by bike the Mont Ventoux (famous mountain of the Tour the France); see the photographs in the attachments. It has gradients of up to 12-15%, 26 kilometres climbing in one stretch. But it is fun.

 

Milco de Vries is also on the racing bike, and Ton van Soest will be in a short while (he is still doing marathon running, but will switch in October).

-- one paragraph deleted due to his personal business story---

Milco is doing fine, and is involved in electric cars in Holland. Wim Harmsen was in China with Jiangling but is now back in his house in Portugal, and more or less retired. Through the social media I am greeting in touch with more and more Korean HMC friends

In June we had a big party with our daughter who turned 40 !!!!. I attached some photos. You see also my son and daughter there with the microphone

Dear Mark, please inform me what you are doing at the moment, I would be interested. Have a good time and good health

Regards
Bert Kreber

The Netherlands