about jan middelkamp

Jan Middelkamp is a proud dad of Collin, Jason, Olivia and Celeste. He is in love with Kelby. Jan is the Development Director (and co-owner) of the HDD Group and CEO of Fitness Education Group (FEG). He has a masters degree in exercise science and a PhD in health psychology and behaviour at the Behavioural Science Institute of the Radboud University in the Netherlands.

He is a former board member of EuropeActive (formerly EHFA) in Brussels from 2013 to 2019. He published over 40 books, such as: The state of research in the global fitness industry (2012: English, German, Dutch); Member retention in fitness clubs (2013); EuropeActive retention reports (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016); Essentials of motivation and behaviour change (2015); Growing the fitness sector through innovation (2016); Customer engagement and experience (2017: English and Mandarin); The transtheoretical model of behaviour change and exercise behaviour in fitness clubs (2017); National fitness market trend reports (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) and Marketing and sales in the fitness sector (2019); Horizon 2030 (in English and Mandarin); Zelf-coaching van gezond gedrag (Dutch); and The Global Fitness Sector, Encyclopedia (2022: English and Dutch).

Jan (1969) graduated at the Academy of Physical Education (Bachelor Degree), and Sports, Exercise and Health at Utrecht University (Master in Science Degree), and received his PhD in health psychology and behaviour at the Radboud University.

He started his career in the fitness industry as a judo teacher and was part of the Dutch National Judo Team for many years. Later he became club and franchise manager at Fit-Care, one of the first franchise chains (22 clubs) in the Netherlands (from 1994). At the same time he was working at the HDD Group and was responsible for the introduction of Les Mills in the Netherlands and Belgium (from 1997). Jan became the COO of Fitness First in the Netherlands (from 2000) and opened 14 health clubs in three years. He returned to the HDD Group as a commercial director and shareholder (from 2003).

For three years he was COO and business development director at HealthCity/Basic-Fit International, a European health club chain with 265 clubs in 7 countries, responsible and managing 2700 employees (from 2006). He was the CEO of the HDD Group (from 2009 to 2014) and currently is the Development Director at HDD and CEO of the Fitness Education Group (FEG).

To build the body of knowledge in fitness and health, travelling the globe is a key component. Jan visits several countries frequently, learns from other experts and visits lots of fitness & health facilities and Universities. He teaches and presents his research, concepts and practical ideas every month in a list of countries around the world!

Nerio Alessandri, President of Technogym and The Wellness Foundation and Sir Graham Watson, President of EuropeActive where the first to receive the book during the EHFF 2015 in Cologne. Jan Middelkamp was the Editor for this book. This book supports fitness and health professionals to get more people, more active, more often.