Mark Rutten: ‘We can make bigger investments’
Mark Rutten has been CFO and a member of the executive board of brewer Royal Swinkels since 2024. He came over from competitor Heineken, where he worked abroad for many years. His ambitions at Swinkels? To think more internationally and be a little bolder when it comes to investments.
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Elections 2025: ‘A stable economic policy will help us move forward’
How can a new cabinet give the Dutch business and investment climate a significant boost and accelerate innovation? Three (prospective) members of parliament from the CDA, GroenLinks-PvdA, and VVD parties with economics in their portfolios discuss this issue.
Board agenda 2035: ‘Contributing ideas instead of monitoring’
Nyenrode Business University celebrated the seventy-fifth edition of the Nyenrode Board of Commissioners Program with a symposium on the management agenda of the future. In 2025, the world will look completely different from when the supervisory board training program started in 1995.
René van Vlerken (Euronext): ‘The end goal is a European capital market’
Euronext CEO René van Vlerken has concerns about the Dutch and European capital markets. The urgency for the creation of a European capital market has grown enormously, and so consolidating it is his most important challenge. ‘There is enough capital, but the market in Europe is too fragmented.’
Corné Greyling: ‘The COSEC navigates an increasingly complex landscape’
Corné Greyling is company secretary of Ahold Delhaize. She sees modern company secretaries as multifunctional governance experts. In that role, she contributes to the supermarket group’s new Growing Together strategy. ‘All the themes from our strategy are reflected in virtually every meeting agenda.
André van der Linden: ‘Make cybersecurity as self-evident as fire safety’
The Royal FloraHolland CIO is tasked with successfully leading a traditional cooperative into the digital age.
How long-term investments can strengthen Europe
Chantal Schrijver, head of the Dutch office of the European Investment Bank, describes how the EIB is solving problems surrounding European competitiveness.
Dutch competitiveness: ‘We must innovate to win’
Marc Zegveld, managing director, and Thijmen van Bree, senior researcher at TNO, translated the Draghi Report findings into recommendations for the Dutch situation.
Florian van Rijn van Alkemade: ‘One unicorn does not mean a successful industry’
Eternal Sun, a specialist in solar simulation for testing solar panels, proved that Europe can indeed scale up technologically.
Sandra Phlippen: ‘A CO2 tax is not a punishment’
Sustainable transition is inevitable, says Sandra Phlippen (ABN AMRO), as countries will reach a point where the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of the transition.
Europe must chart its own course on China
Europe is still being carried along by America, with the result that European companies are being surprised by Chinese competitors they had underestimated.
Raymond van Eck (Fairphone): ‘We are done being the exception’
Fairphone-CEO Raymond van Eck wants to scale up as a producer of sustainable and fair smartphones without compromising on core values.
CFO, take control of the profit forecast
When companies adjust their profit forecasts, it can have an immense impact on the share price.
Effective change needs leaders on center stage
Change rarely fails at the drawing board, but often falls apart in practice, because leaders place themselves outside of the change process.
‘Sensitive issues remain undiscussed too often’
The CEOs of the Johan Cruijff ArenA and Auping are on the same wavelength when it comes to the sustainable transition and discuss discomfort in the boardroom.
Why moral imagination is decisive now
We are at a crossroads in history. Which direction we take depends on the choices we make today, according to Joost Vervoort.
Resilience as a public-private matter
Rob Bauer, former chairman of the NATO Military Committee, and Deloitte partner Kim Vrielink on shaking off our weakness after 80 years of peace.
Michel Mersch (Nestlé): ‘Sustainable investments more than pay for themselves’
Despite rising commodity prices, food company Nestlé continues to focus on sustainability. Michel Mersch explains why.
Mirjam van Thiel (Acomo): ‘A CFO is more than the financial conscience’
Mirjam van Thiel, the group CFO of Acomo, has a broad job description. ‘But financial stability remains my top priority.’
Good practices to embrace discomfort in the boardroom
The boardroom of the future is one that does not shy away from unsolvable problems, but rather turns them into productive opportunities.
Urgently wanted: a European Trump whisperer
The recent NATO summit in The Hague was a resounding success. This is good news for defense companies that export to the United States, although they too are at risk.
Entrepreneurship and survival in the digital age
Technology, and artificial intelligence in particular, is forcing organizations to rethink everything from strategy to culture, from revenue models to personnel.
Digital resilience in three steps
Cybersecurity directly affects the strategy, reputation, and future-proofing of organizations. These three steps can help organizations increase their digital resilience.
The Evolution of Boardroom Dynamics
What has changed in boardroom dynamics in recent years? And what urgent changes are still needed? These questions are central to a roundtable discussion with four experts.
‘Sustainability does not stand alone’
The geopolitical headwinds are not causing companies to lose sight of ESG issues, according to the private equity investors at our roundtable.
From hopeful questions to a hopeful future
The business community has a huge impact on the transition to a humane economy. Jeroen Smit shares how leaders can arrive at a hopeful perspective.
Roderick Glerum: ‘Don't wait to invest in the energy transition’
The fact that the energy transition in the Netherlands is progressing more slowly than hoped is no reason for pessimism for Vattenfall's director of the business market.
The evolution of the annual evaluation
Frank Burgers and Victor Prozesky of The Board Practice on the shift from compliance to a strategically oriented approach to annual evaluation.
Analysis Top-100 Corporate Vrouwen 2025: Spectacular shifts
Miriam van Dongen is the most influential woman in Dutch business and the top 100 has been refreshed by almost a fifth compared to last year.
Miriam van Dongen: ‘We need to recalibrate our supervision’
The most influential corporate woman speaks out about fundamental changes in the supervisory board, so the profile of the board can better align with current issues.
Daniëlle Melis: ‘Always time for a good conversation’
Daniëlle Melis was recently appointed to the Corporate Governance Code Monitoring Committee. If there is confidence that good governance standards are adhered to at the level of principles and accounted for in a transparent manner, there is really no need for detailed rules, she argues.
Process intelligence in the energy transition
Rinke van de Rhee and Mario Suykerbuyk are working under pressure facilitating the energy transition. ‘To what extent is that a digital transformation? Completely.’
Maria Montenegro: ‘Steady, continuous transformation’
Maria Montenegro has been chief strategy officer at Wolters Kluwer since 2022. Starting out with ten employees, she now leads a department of seventy people.
'Accelerating with tomorrow’s technology’
Stedin CEO Trudy Onland wants to take major, concrete steps towards a new, sustainable energy system that is now still under construction.
The future of food: Winning in a tough market
The future of food offers many opportunities. It will, however, require courage, long-term thinking and, above all, the ability to change.
Financial vulnerability in the Netherlands
A new study by Deloitte shows that almost half of all Dutch households – 47 percent – are nevertheless financially vulnerable or unhealthy. What can be done about this?
‘Insecure women’ as a convenient and dangerous argument
Maartje Laterveer, gender, diversity and inclusion expert, is fed up with the argument that women are insecure and therefore do not reach the top.
The code: Back to basics or room for public debate?
The professors Harm-Jan de Kluiver and Jeroen Veldman fight a rubric about what should and should not be included in the corporate governance code.
‘We want the code to become a source of inspiration again’
Rob van Wingerden, chairman of the new Corporate Governance Code Monitoring Committee calls on directors and supervisory directors to read the code.
Bas Brouns (KLM): ‘Our main aim is increasing the margin’
CFO of KLM, Bas Brouns, needs to invest billions in fleet renewal, while profitability is lagging behind that of sister company Air France.
Chantal Vergouw: ‘Still much to be gained with digital resilience’
Chantal Vergouw is optimistic but also realistic about the digital future of business. 'Through innovation and collaboration, we can continue to make progress.'
Industrial sustainability requires a differentiated approach
The solution to making industry more sustainable lies in a differentiated approach, write Boudewijn Tjeertes and Maurice Vlek of Vattenfall.
Defense–industry collaboration: 'Innovate and scale up'
The Ministry of Defense is facing an unprecedented scale-up. What are the challenges they face and what is the role of the business community?
The CFO as strategic navigator in a new world order
The role of the CFO is more strategic than ever. However, that also brings opportunities, was the conclusion at the Deloitte CFO dinner.
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