Analysis Top-100 Corporate Vrouwen 2025: Spectacular shifts
> Did you see our full list? Top-100 Corporate Women 2025
Miriam van Dongen, as a ‘professional supervisory board member since 2009,’ has long been a familiar face in corporate Netherlands and in this list. In the previous edition of this ranking, she fell just outside the podium: she was fourth. She also featured prominently in the Top 100 supervisory directors (male and female) published at the beginning of 2025, in second place behind former Ahold CEO Dick Boer – which already allowed her to call herself the country's most influential female supervisory director. Van Dongen owes her rise in the Top 100 Corporate Women to a further expansion of her already broad portfolio. Van Dongen became – after the reference date of the previous count - a supervisory director of Rabobank, where she is a member of the audit and risk committee, and a supervisory director of research firm TNO, where she chairs the audit committee. She is also still a supervisor at Achmea, Optiver and the Land Registry. She combines that with advisory roles in the financial sector: at the private equity firm BlackFin Capital Partners and at the uMunthu Investment Company, an investment fund focused on Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, she also sits on the supervisory board of Het Balletorkest, the 'musical partner' of the Dutch National Ballet and Het Nederlands Dans Theater.
In a 2022 interview with Management Scope, Van Dongen – who, after studying business economics, held positions at McKinsey and Delta Lloyd, among others - expressed enthusiasm for her supervisory roles: ‘I like the fact that as a supervisory board member you get to think about the strategy of a company. You build on experience, and you become a more complete supervisory director with everything you experience. You take that with you to the other companies in your portfolio. Some of the issues are the same, but I look at them from different perspectives.’ In 2025, she adds: ‘The classic supervisory role remains important, but more emphasis should be placed on the advisory role.’
Freefall
In the Top 100 Corporate Women, Van Dongen takes over first place from fellow professional Petri Hofsté. Hofsté, who has been in the highest regions of our ranking for years – in fact, she topped the list no less than seven times – seems to have gone into freefall. This year, we find her ‘only’ at number fifty-six. This is mainly due to Hofsté’s recent departure from the supervisory board of Rabobank, a position that counts heavily in this ranking. At Rabobank, she completed the 2024 annual financial statements, after which she was thanked ‘for her contribution to the bank’s solid course.’ That certainly does not mean that we will say goodbye to Hofsté in this list. She may well return to the ‘real’ top in the next edition of this list, as she will start on the supervisory board of ING on July 1. But that was just after the survey date for this year.
Swapping places in the top three
First, a look at the top three: in addition to Van Dongen, it is made up by two women who were also in the top three last year, but who have swapped places this year. They are professional supervisory board member Pauline van der Meer Mohr (rising from no. three to no. two) and the recently departed PostNL CEO Herna Verhagen (who traded position two for position three). Her departure from PostNL in particular costs Verhagen points in the ranking. Her supervisory positions at Philips and ING, and to a lesser extent Het Concertgebouw and the Goldschmeding Foundation, ensure that Verhagen –in 2023 leader of this list – is still one of the leading voices in corporate Netherlands.
Runner-up Van der Meer Mohr more or less consolidated her heavy portfolio this year (including at the supervisory boards of NN Group, Ahold Delhaize and as chair of ASM International, among others). She left her position as a member of the capital market committee at the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, but also took on a new position, as a member of the board of VEUO.
Spectacular shifts
The changing of places in the top ten is, of course, not the whole story. As discussed above there were also other spectacular shifts compared to the previous edition. One example is the steady rise of DSM-Firmenich and Arcadis supervisory director Carla Mahieu (from no. seven to no. four). Mahieu’s past HR positions at Shell, Philips and Aegon, among others, have made her the specialist in talent management and succession planning in supervisory board country. In an earlier interview she said: Supervisory board members like to talk about strategy and financial figures, but now there is also much more attention to the importance of human capital. This stems from the realization that without the right people, even the best strategy cannot lead to success. The discussion about talent has broadened to now include the entire talent pipeline, not just the top positions.’
An even more striking rise – from number thirty-one to number five – is for Mieke De Schepper. She has only recently returned to the Netherlands after almost two decades abroad, particularly Singapore. ‘I was completely out of the Dutch world, I hardly had a network here,’ she said earlier in an interview with this magazine. De Schepper is living proof that this can change quickly: she returned as CCO at Trustpilot and was appointed CEO of Sunweb last year, resulting in her being listed in all the leading lists. De Schepper is also the highest non-professional on the list.
Re-entrant and highest new entry
A re-entrant in the top ten is professional supervisory board member Sandra Berendsen (no. ten). Berendsen's rise became evident already earlier this year, when she convincingly ended up in first place of Management Scope’s Next50 Supervisory Board Members. The dairy farmer from Markelo was forced out of the spotlight for a while but is back with a number of interesting supervisory directorships (including KPMG and Rabobank). Berendsen commented, 'I had to give up a few supervisory directorships because, simply, I was needed at home on the farm. It may look like a gap in my CV, but I focused on the dairy farm. It was very hands-on and hard work. Suddenly I was standing troubleshooting a malfunction in the milking robots at night.' The highlight of the year is Marike Bonhof (see 'An expedition on the bucket list' below). She is the highest-ranking new entrant. From ‘nowhere’ she is now at number eight in the list. Bonhof scores points thanks to being CFO at housing corporation Ymere and to supervisory positions at Stedin and Nationale Hypotheek Garantie.
Marike Bonhof: An expedition on the bucketlist
Marike Bonhaf, after studying business economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, began her career at the Ministry of Finance, where she worked at the Directorate of Budgetary Affairs and the Inspectorate of State Finance. Twenty-seven years later, Bonhof – according to her own LinkedIn ‘a committed and passionate director’ – is number eight in the Top 100 Corporate Women, making her the highest new entrant. She owes this mainly to her new position as CFO of housing corporation Ymere (although she would rather be ‘chief value officer’, she recently said in an interview) and because of her supervisory positions at Stedin and Nationale Hypotheek Garantie. Bonhof has been active in the financial sector her entire working life, particularly in (semi) government. First at the ministry of Zalm, later as a civil servant in Amsterdam, then as CFO of Vitens, and now at Ymere.
Expedition Robinson
As the brand-new CFO of Ymere, she has taken a strong stand on several occasions. She is concerned about the future of affordable rental housing in the Netherlands, wants more new construction and an acceleration of the sustainability agenda (but, ‘If we participate in the energy transition, it cannot be that our tenants have to pay for that,’ she told BNR). She has always had that ‘social drive.’, as demonstrated in her previous position as CFO of drinking water company Vitens. In De Gelderlander she said: ‘We should make it as easy as possible for children to drink water. When I was in elementary school, I had to fill my bottle in the cloakroom. Of course, that does not appeal to the imagination. Better to install a special water tap in the school. Or simpler, make the tap in the classroom more pertinent, for example by hanging a poster above it that it is also a drinking water tap.’ That same social commitment is evident in another gem from the archives. In 2017, Marike Bonhof, then financial director of the municipality of Amsterdam, wanted to participate in the TV programme Expedition Robinson. From Het Parool: ‘It is on my bucket list.’ The fact that only famous Dutch people were participating did not bother her. Moreover, there was that deeper layer there too. ‘I want to draw attention to clean drinking water. In the Netherlands it is taken for granted that water comes from the tap, but in many countries that is not the case.’ From her application video: ‘They think I am crazy. End of career, no time for it. And yet I want to participate.’ She has up to now not participated in the program. Not yet.
New faces
In addition to Bonhof and Berendsen, the list includes no fewer than fifteen other ‘new’ faces. Among them is economist Else Bos (no. eighteen). She stepped down as member of the supervisory board of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) but then took on a heavy supervisory position at Achmea in her portfolio. Commenting on the significant difference between supervision at DNB and Achmea Bos previously said, ‘DNB as a central supervisor starts from the importance of stability in the sector and from there looks at how the individual players behave and interact with each other. As an internal supervisor, on the other hand, you are primarily focused on the company of which you are a supervisory director. That is the biggest difference.’ Another notable, but not totally surprising newcomer is the French banker Marguerite Bérard (see box below). She is busy onboarding as ABN AMRO’s new CEO.
Marguerite Bérard: Macron’s classmate is not of the French persuasion
‘I am an apple.’ Marguerite Bérard is busy with Dutch lessons, she recently told shareholders in her introductory speech. She had to memorize the strangest Dutch phrases, of which the apple phrase was just an absurd example. In any case: with her coming out as an apple, the French woman wanted to indicate that she is serious about her new job in Amsterdam and her integration in the Netherlands.
Bérard may have been following a tip from her neighbor in Paris, Stéphane Boujnah, chairman of Euronext. He advised Bérard – so he told NRC – to immerse herself totally in the Dutch language and culture. He suggested day trips to Texel, Groningen and Delft. Just as Boujnah herself did when he lived in Amsterdam.
Never rest
Bérard was officially appointed as Robert Swaak's successor at ABN AMRO this spring, becoming the first female CEO of a major Dutch bank. Swaak had warned her in a farewell interview in the FD that 'There is never rest in this business.' Swaak left a legacy of a bank in recovery, with a sharpened focus on the Dutch market and growing in asset management. But also with relatively high costs, a major shareholder (the state) eager to get rid of its interest and a major reorganization in the pipeline.
Creating focus is one of Bérard's top priorities. She herself told the shareholders, 'We are going to improve our profitability, optimize our capital position, bring our costs to the right level and achieve significant growth.' Bérard's detailed strategic plans will follow in November, at ABN AMRO’s capital markets day. She did promise shareholders in advance that she would ‘never do anything with the French touch.’
Civil servant, writer, CEO
But who exactly is Marguerite Bérard? A ‘French woman with steel-blue eyes, born in 1977; competent, gentle, extremely smart, easy-going and interested in people.’ According to NRC, ‘She does not mince her words’. According to de Volkskrant, ‘Margot pour les intimes’. According to Les Echo, Bérard studied economics and public administration in Paris (Sciences Po) and the United States (Princeton) and completed her education at the prestigious elite school ENA (provider of several French presidents and prime ministers). She was the best of her class.’ And that says something, because French President Emmanuel Macron was a classmate. She concluded her studies with a twenty-page epistle, calling for drastic reforms to education, signed by Macron and 131 fellow students.
Initially, Bérard opted for a career in the civil service. She became a financial inspector and was an advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy, among other things. In 2012, she moved to the private sector, to the merged bank Banque Populaire-Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE), where she became responsible for strategy and legal affairs. In 2018, she left for BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, where she became head of the national retail operations. Until ABN AMRO knocked on the door and she left– ‘like a bolt from the blue’ - according to Les Echos, for the Netherlands. Bérard – married to French banker François Pérol, with two children from a previous marriage – is also the author of the book Le Siècle d'Assia, the life story of her Jewish-Russian grandfather Emmanuel Genstein, who escaped the pogroms in the Soviet Union and joined the French army in the late 1930s.
The big question is of course whether Bérard will ‘fit in’ with the green-yellow bank. Boujnah of Euronext told NRC that he has no doubts, ‘Bérard is very direct. In a way almost Dutch. I think she is a perfect fit.’
Expats
Bérard is one of eighteen foreign women on the list (that is one expat less than last year). The highest-ranked foreigner is the German-Finnish Essimari Kairisto. The supervisory board member of grid operator TenneT and soil researcher Fugro, among others, is in twelfth place, two places lower than last year. Australian Sarah Russell (on the supervisory board of ABN AMRO and APG, among others) is in second place in this sub-list (ranked at no. fourteen). Departing Wolters Kluwer top woman Nancy McKinstry gets to shine one more time as third foreigner (no. twenty-six on the ranking). McKinstry will retire next spring. We are already having to get used to that idea. In terms of 'foreign', it is otherwise mostly all very 'Western' that are in command. Netherlands’ neighbouring countries and the Anglo-Saxon countries are especially well represented. Belarus, Croatia and Turkey are the most exotic countries in the list. They are the native countries of Natalia Wallenberg (no. sixty), Ljiljana Čortan (no. thirty-three) and Pinar Abay (no. forty-six) respectively. Abay, with the delightful job title of head of retail, market leaders and challengers & growth markets and member of the management board banking at ING, particularly praised the ‘human touch’ in the Netherlands. In an interview with Management Scope: ‘We really enjoy the freedom here, the fact that you can go everywhere by bike. That is certainly fantastic, especially for the children.’ In the same interview she praised her employer for choosing her: ‘ING deliberately chose me, a young, modern Turkish woman with international experience and digital savvy. My task is to ‘shake things up’ and further the digitization at the bank. ING took a bold move with this. I think that is also the main reason why I love this bank. Here, young, talented people from diverse backgrounds are given great opportunities.’
Predictable
It is noticeable in every list produced by Management Scope (other than this list, the Top 100 Supervisory Board Members and the Next50) that corporate Netherlands’ top remains remarkably homogeneous. There is little cultural diversity. Last year, we were able to tick the checkbox ‘multicultural background’ for four women, now there are three: Laetitia Griffith, Pinar Abay and Choy van der Hooft-Cheong. A decrease in an already meagre number. And cultural background is not the only point where diversity lags. The lists are also largely predictable when it comes to age, education and socio-economic background. Speaking of Laetitia Griffith, she also ticks another box: that of former politicians in the list. We have five this year. In addition to Griffith (VVD), they are Karien van Gennip (CDA), Annemarie Jorritsma (VVD), Jolande Sap (Groen-Links) and Corien Wortmann-Kool (CDA).
About half of the list consists of ‘professional’ supervisory board members, people whose only professional task is supervision. Forty-six women on the list have executive responsibilities in addition to supervisory positions. The aforementioned new Sunweb CEO Mieke De Schepper is the highest-ranking of them. Apart from De Schepper, there are eleven CEOs on the list (compared to sixteen last year). Thirty-five women in the list can truly call themselves ‘top women.’ They also head (or rather, chair) a supervisory board or board of directors.
Aging population
The average age in our top hundred this year is 57.63. That is slightly older than last year (57.54 years). In itself not a noteworthy shift. But what is striking is that the average age has been steadily increasing every year since 2018. Seven years ago, the average age was still below fifty-five (54.67). This year, too, the fifty-somethings (fifty-seven) and sixty-somethings (thirty-five) dominate. However, there are more forty-somethings this year than last year (seven versus five). Belarusian Natalia Wallenberg is by far the youngest on the list, at forty-three. The six other forty-somethings – we will mention them by name here, as they probably are here to stay – are Annemiek van Melick (no. twenty), Sinead Gorman (no. twenty-eight), Marguerite Bérard (no. thirty-four), Pinar Abay (no. forty-six), Charlotte Hanneman (no. sixty-five) and Lara Yocarini (no. sixty-seven). Former minister Annemarie Jorritsma (seventy-five) is, as she was last year, the oldest in the list and the only person in her seventies.
Vivienne de Leeuw: Port baron, but not ‘one of the guys’
‘Ultimately, for me it is all about making social impact. I think that is the most important thing’, said Vivienne de Leeuw, CFO of the Rotterdam Port Authority (Port of Rotterdam for the global citizens among us) in an interview. ‘I would not call my dream for the Port of Rotterdam a dream, it is an ambition. By 2050, the port will be emission-free. We are working really hard to achieve that.’ De Leeuw, trained as an economist at Maastricht University, has been CFO at the Port of Rotterdam since 2019, becoming the first woman on the board. She is ranked thirty-eighth in Management Scope’s Top 100 Corporate Women this year. She owes this not only to her high-ranking financial position at the port, but also to her supervisory roles, in particular as chair of the supervisory board of logistics service provider Portbase. In addition, she further claims her place in Rotterdam as chair of the supervisory board of Rotterdam Festivals. In 2023, De Leeuw was awarded the CVO Award for chief value officer of the year. ‘That award shows that as a CFO you do not only look at the financial side of things, but also at the social side,’ according to De Leeuw.
Life lessons and a difficult decision
De Leeuw (1975) was previously financial director of RTL Nederland and worked at KPN. Before that, she held financial positions for Arthur Andersen/Deloitte and for real estate investor Unibail-Rodamco. At RTL and KPN, she learned a number of important life lessons. At RTL, she took the brave decision to resign after a strategic difference of opinion. ‘The CEO decided to implement only a quarter of my plans. I then said that in that case I am not going to do it, because it will not work. I found that a very difficult decision.’ At KPN, she learned from then CEO Ad Scheepbouwer that, above all, to be herself. In an interview from the series Real Questions by leadership agency Ebbinge, De Leeuw says about this, ‘Scheepbouwer had hired me, but I was about 20 years younger than the rest. How should I deal with this, I asked, and he said, ‘Just be yourself. I hired you for a reason.’ It has since become my motto: Always be a first version of yourself, not a second rated version of someone else. If you start doing what someone else is doing, you are no longer authentic and you no longer make an impact. The fact that Ad said that, strengthened my conviction: I no longer have to be one of the guys.’
Shine in their absence
We had to say farewell to a number of women in the list. A notable dropout from the list is Annet Aris. Aris was our list leader in 2019 and was listed in an honourable ninth place last year. Her absence this year is mainly due to her departure from the supervisory board of ASML. Supervisory board positions at Randstad and Jungheinrich AG, among others, earned Aris just short of a spot in the top 100. Old acquaintance Annemieke Roobeek is also (temporarily?) from the list. Last year she was at number twenty-one, but her departure from the supervisory board of Eneco has taken its toll. How did the former leaders of this list – which is published for the fifteenth time this year – fare? Petri Hofsté, Herna Verhagen and Annet Aris have already been mentioned above. Annemiek Fentener van Vlissingen (no. one in 2010) is still playing her part at Heineken, SHV, and other companies. She is still in the top ten (no. six). Marieke van Lier Lels (no. one in 2011) has disappeared from the top one hundred since last year (but is still active, including as vice-chair of the supervisory board of Post-NL). Margot Scheltema (no. one in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015) was last on this list in 2023 (eighty-second). She is currently involved in training new, young supervisory directors.
The Netherlands is still lagging behind
With a female-only list, it is of course difficult to draw conclusions about diversity and male-female ratios in Dutch boardrooms. For that we need to zoom out a little and take a look at some recent studies. For example, a recent study by the Social and Economic Council (SER) among more than 4,000 Dutch companies. The SER concludes from this that the proportion of women at the top of Dutch business remains lower than the international average. According to the research, 15.3 percent of directors and 25.7 percent of supervisory directors are women. The number of women on supervisory boards grew significantly after the introduction of the women's quota in 2022.
The SER’s figures are broadly confirmed by biennial research among listed Dutch companies by search and leadership consultancy Spencer Stuart. That concludes that the number of women on supervisory boards of fifty AEX and AMX companies has doubled in the past ten years - from twenty-one percent to forty-three percent. That seems like good news (and it is), but the researchers do make some qualifications. For example, at only five of the fifty AEX and AMX companies is the chairman of the supervisory board a woman. Women are also still heavily outnumbered on important committees. In nomination committees, for example, only thirteen percent of the chairs are women.
The hundred top performers in the Top 100 Corporate Women are fortunately only the tip of the iceberg of top female talent in the Netherlands. But the above studies show that there is still much to be desired for the year ahead. Thanks in part to the much-discussed ‘women’s quota’ (and thanks to rose-tinted glasses), the glass is finally becoming half full in terms of gender distribution. But especially in the supervisory boards of large companies and in the leading committees within the supervisory boards, the diversity could still increase. A few more chairmen, please!