Roland Arnold, founder and managing director of PARAVAN GmbH, lost his father in a tragic accident when he was a young boy. Since then, he has felt the urge to help people in need. As an adult, he struggled to make a living from a small tyre business and earning a little extra operating a combine harvester. The turning point in his life came in 1997 in a dreary car park at a motorway service station. In the pouring rain, he helped an overburdened wife to lift her paraplegic husband into a car. This spontaneous action led to the birth of PARAVAN. His vision was to give back mobility and a zest for life to handicapped people. In a garage on his brother’s farm, he worked obsessively on innovative, individual vehicles for the disabled. The initial derision and scepticism that greeted his efforts were soon replaced by wide admiration and enthusiasism. Arnolds' commercial and social commitment was fired by typical Swabian industriousness and seemingly boundless creativity. In 2003 he acquired his first patents.
In 2005 PARAVAN GmbH was established. The ultra-modern 50,000 m² mobility park was built with his own money in Pfronstetten-Aichelau, Baden-Wurttemberg, a community with 270 inhabitants. Since 2009 PARAVAN has been the global market leader for customised vehicles for the disabled. Today we can rely on an active network covering experts in the fields of medicine, research, business and politics. We continue to learn from the experiences of our customers on an every day basis. We currently have 140 employees as well as branches and partners worldwide – even in Australia and New Zealand. But one thing has remained constant – the satisfaction that comes from being able to do something useful.