Peter Frans Pauwels

TomTom

Co-Founder

Peter Frans Pauwels was the original product developer at TomTom, and one of the small team of four friends who founded TomTom 26 years ago. His expertise and vision for product development played a decisive role in TomTom’s growth from a small startup into a leading global brand.

Peter Frans managed the development and execution of the first navigation system – the TomTom Navigator. It ran on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), providing people with an easy-to-use, affordable navigation solution for the very first time. This paved the way for the launch of the TomTom GO in 2004, the very first portable navigation device, which revolutionized the way people move. The TomTom GO became the fastest selling consumer device in history and is featured in TIME magazine’s list of the most influential gadgets in history.

Today, Peter Frans makes sure TomTom’s engineers – many of whom are working on an autonomous future – never lose sight of what made the company famous: a laser focus on creating innovative technology that is incredibly easy to use.

Peter Frans holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Amsterdam.