"The road to the impossible": BNR Newsradio interviews ASML's outgoing CTO Martin van den Brink (1/2)

Dutch podcast transcribed and translated to English

Dutch radiostation BNR published a great podcast interview with ASML's outgoing CTO Martin van den Brink.👇 In honor of Martin and to unlock this journalistic goodness for non-Dutchies, I’ve transcibed and translated the episode below. In this first episode (out of two), reporters Herbert Blankesteijn en Ben van der Burg talk to Martin about his 40-year career as a technology leader and semiconductor industry pioneer. He reflects on the earliest days of ASML, the company’s innovation journey with highlights and lowlights, and what it meant to grow up with chipmakers like Micron, AMD and TSMC. Enjoy! 👌 All kudos for this podcast go to the reporters and BNR. 👍

Interviewer: Martin van den Brink, CTO, co-president of ASML. I'm inclined to say welcome to De Technoloog, but we are actually your guests today.

Martin: Well, welcome.

Interviewer: And this is essentially your farewell interview, because you're retiring.

Martin: Well, that sounds heavier than it is. Yes, I'm retiring. Farewell is too big of a word.

Interviewer: Why are you retiring?

Martin: That's a good question, which one obviously hasn't thought about. Why I'm retiring. Let me put it this way: I think it's good for me to make room in the company for others. It's not that I necessarily need to stop tomorrow, but there are many people ready to step in. I've been doing this for 40 years, and at some point, you work towards an endpoint, right? We didn't just decide yesterday that I would retire tomorrow; it's something you spend a few years preparing for. And then, when you're in such a process, you also tell yourself, "don’t linger."

Interviewer: What makes you tell that to yourself?

Martin: Because, this has been playing on my mind longer than just the retirement; it actually started when I became co-president, when I was forced by the role to take more of a backseat. This also gave more space to others to do what's necessary to advance the company. So, you increasingly see that people are busy on their own and no longer seek you out as much, or you seek them out less.

Interviewer: So you're moving away from the day-to-day operations, that CTO role.

Martin: Well, the CTO is already a relatively distant position. I always interfered quite concretely with the technology, as long as possible, within the constraints of my role. But then you quickly realize that a balance must be struck between your involvement and giving others the space to do their thing. And then at some point, you find yourself in a process where it's not wrong to step aside. And not many people continue after they turn 67, although some of our customers go on 20 years more.

Interviewer: Let’s talk a bit about the time before you came to ASML. You climbed up from lower technical school, MTS, HTS, and finally graduated from the University of Twente. That’s not the easiest or fastest way to become an engineer. Why did you choose that route?

Martin: Well, you choose very little, that's what I remember from it. And ‘climbing up’ is again a bold word. Theoretically schooled is the proper term nowadays. When I was in elementary school, I didn’t stand out as someone who had a great theoretical knowledge or was good in a lot of subjects. So I could say that I chose the easy way—for me. If I may be so bold.