With hobbies as diverse as singing in a choir, diving and mountain biking, Patrik van de Scheur, head of SWEP's Swiss plant at Tentlingen, might be the company's own Renaissance man.

A Renaissance man raises his voice

“I was inspired by my wife, who sings at a much higher standard than me, to start in a choir,” Van de Scheur says. “After a few years, I really began to improve, and two years ago I sang Gabriel Fauré's Requiem with a choir. It was a really exciting experience.”

Van de Scheur now also sings in another choir, which participated in a contest broadcast in January 2010 on Swiss French television.

“We are currently preparing other concerts, and one large event next year in October will be to sing Mozart's Requiem.” Van de Scheur also went to Verona with his choir for the international choir contest, and brought back a silver medal in the church choir category.

“In our category, we were beaten by the Stockholm symphonic choir,” he says. “Of course, they are nearly all professionals so this was no surprise.”

You can see Patrik van de Scheur sing with his choir at the Verona contest on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKoAfMWYmnk&feature=related

Apart from singing, diving is a major interest. “I started diving on the French island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean,” Van de Scheur says. “I achieved my open water the following year. I have made 850 dives, and have CMAS M2 instructor certification, CEDIP M2 and PADI diver master certificates, too.”

Van de Scheur has also had hundreds of diving students, and he has certified about 50 people to become rescue divers and dive masters.

He has dived at various places such as the Red Sea, Maldives, the Caribbean Sea, underwater cave dives in the Cenotes in Mexico, Negros Island in the Philippines, the Sultanate of Oman and Elba Island in Italy.

“Of course, I also dive in lakes, such as the Austrian Lake Fernstein, Swiss lakes such as Neuchatel, Gruyère and Geneva, and Bodensee in Germany,” he says.

When it comes to mountain biking, Van de Scheur points out that it is quite an intensive sport, and going up and down the Swiss mountains in the Fribourg area is a great pleasure.

“I can start from my home and climb 400 meters straight up, then go down 500 meters to a lake and then back home,” he says. “I really enjoy doing this, because it allows me to get rid of my stress and keeps me calmer in general.”