Hans Wijers | |
---|---|
Born | Gerardus Johannes 11 January 1951 Oostburg, Netherlands |
Residence | Utrecht |
Nationality | Dutch |
Ethnicity | Caucasian |
Education | MSc at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, PhD from Erasmus University |
Occupation | CEO, president of the Board of Management |
Employer | AkzoNobel |
Known for | CEO of AkzoNobel (current), former Minister of Economic Affairs (1994–1998), former president of the Dutch World Wildlife Fund |
Salary | € 3.783.800 (2010)[1] |
Term | 2003 onwards |
Predecessor | Cees van Lede |
Successor | Ton Büchner (spring 2012) |
Political party | D66 |
Partner | Edith Sijmons |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
www.akzonobel.com |
Gerardus Johannes (Hans) Wijers (born 11 January 1951) is the current CEO of AkzoNobel. From 1994 until 1998 he was a minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands for the liberal democrats party D66.
Hans Wijers was born in Oostburg, the Netherlands, on 11 January 1951.
After secondary school at Hogere burgerschool (HBS-B) level, Wijers studied Economics at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, where he graduated in 1976. As assistant professor, he taught Economics at the Erasmus University, and in 1982 received a doctorate for his research in "Industrial politics: the design of governmental policy for industrial sectors".[2][3]
Hans Wijers lives together with Dr Edith A. Sijmons, gynaecologist. They have a daughter (1992) and son (1994), and live in Utrecht.[4][5][6]
From 1982 till 1984, Wijers worked as a civil servant at the ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and later at the ministry of Economic Affairs. Subsequently, he became a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group for, among others, Bakkenist, Spits & Co.[2]
As minister of Economic affairs from 1994 onward, he was responsible for the law change regarding the extending of shop opening hours, and the coined the Competition Regulation law. A short period he was interim minister of Finance, during illness of Gerrit Zalm, the minister at the time. Wijers completed one full four-year period of the Dutch ministerial cabinet until 1998. Then he chose to continue his career in consultancy, where he became senior vice president of the Boston Consulting Group.[2] As a secondary job from 1999 until 2003, Wijers also was president of the Dutch tributary of the World Wildlife Fund.[7]
Since May 2003, he has been the president of the Board of Management of AkzoNobel;[8][9] Sulzer AG CEO Ton Büchner has been selected to replace him when Wijers exits AkzoNobel in 2012.[10] Additional to his work for AkzoNobel, Wijers is non-executive director at Royal Dutch Shell, Chairman of the Oranje Fonds and the Ubbo Emmius Fund Foundation at the University of Groningen. He is also active for the Concertgebouw, the Young Pianist Foundation and the European Round Table of Industrialists.[2][11]