Daniel van Dalen emigrated to RSA in 1965 from Holland from a small town called Zwijndrecht, close to Rotterdam.

He started work at Cape Steel as a structural engineer and soon worked his way up to marketing and sales manager in charge of many local and international projects.

On these travels he came across the concept of Project Management (all-in contracts) which was not known in RSA as yet and he started implementing it at Cape Steel.

Daniel started on his own in 1986 with the knowledge and contacts built up over the many years in the industry and founded Zwijndrecht Investments (Pty) Ltd, doing various industrial and international projects.

In 1994, his son Willem joined the business and eventually took over the reins in 1998. Willem also formed an alternative company called Zwijndrecht Construction (Pty) Ltd. This was done as clients could now recognize them as not just an investment company, but also a construction company.

Daniel is still at the office and provides advice and input from time to time depending on the complexity of the projects.