In 1928, Paul Wessel Deerns and Dirk Houtman junior founded a partnership by the name of Houtman & Deerns. An engineering consultancy was quite a novelty in those days. Paul Wessel Deerns was a visionary, and a highly innovative one at that. Following the death of his partner, in 1930, Paul Wessel Deerns continued the firm by himself.
Today Deerns has grown into a substantial multinational, employing more than 600 staff members in 24 national offices around the world.