Analysis Top-100 Corporate Women 2026: Get Involved
Miriam van Dongen is, as she was last year, the most influential woman in Dutch business. Van Dongen, a ‘professional supervisory board member since 2009,’ tops the Top 100 Corporate Women for the second year in a row—the annual, leading ranking by Management Scope of the most influential (or, if you will: most important or most powerful) women in Dutch business. Notably, for the first time since 2018, the average age of the women on the list has dropped. The number of foreign corporate women is also increasing. Furthermore, we are seeing a remarkable rise in the number of CFOs. Four of the new entrants alone are financial directors, and a significant number of other women on the list have a financial background.
But first, of course, some well-deserved attention for this year’s podium, which collectively represents more than a century of executive experience. It bears some resemblance to last year’s podium. At the top of the list is Miriam van Dongen, who, similar to last year, owes her position and her ranking primarily to three high-profile supervisory board roles: at Rabobank, insurer Achmea, and trading firm Optiver.
In a 2025 interview with this magazine, on the occasion of her top ranking at the time, Van Dongen discussed her work on the supervisory board. She particularly emphasized the advisory aspect of the supervisory board member’s role: ‘I think that in these uncertain times, executives need more than ever a sparring partner who thinks along with them and looks ahead. Retrospective review remains necessary, but the dialogue beforehand is very important.’ With her financial background (see the box below), Van Dongen symbolizes the rise of ‘financial women’ on this list. But more on that later.
First, the rest of the podium for the 2026 edition. The number 2 spot is also a stable factor, as the silver medal goes, just like last year, to multi-board member Pauline van der Meer Mohr, a board member of, among others, NN Group, Ahold Delhaize, and ASM International (where she chairs the supervisory board). She also oversees the Mauritshuis Museum. Like Van Dongen, Van der Meer Mohr has long held supervisory roles.
A few years ago, she discussed the differences between then and now in Management Scope: ‘These days, people really view the responsibilities of a supervisory board differently. Fifteen years ago, those were largely limited to what was legally expected of a supervisory board; now it is more about the role a company plays in society and the social responsibility of directors and supervisory board members that goes along with it.’
Third place also goes to a familiar face on this list: Petri Hofsté. Hofsté topped the Top 100 Corporate Women list no fewer than seven times. Last year, she suddenly dropped to 56th place. That was entirely due to her departure from Rabobank’s supervisory board. Last year, we also predicted her expected return to the top of this ranking, due to her appointment to ING’s supervisory board; that appointment fell just outside the cutoff date last year but now counts in full. In the mid-1990s, Hofste took on her first supervisory role at Blijf van mijn Lijf Amsterdam (now Blijf Groep). In an interview with Management Scope, she concluded that the relationship between management and supervisory board members has become more balanced in recent decades:
‘Executive board members realize that effective oversight is also in their best interest. They therefore want a supervisory board that thinks critically, reflects, and adds value. There is certainly still some grumbling about long meetings or repetitive topics, but those are organizational issues. The intention is different: there is openness and a willingness to share responsibility from different roles and tasks. Executive boards and supervisory board members are increasingly partners in achieving continuity and value creation.’
Two-legged fourth
For the real fireworks and the real surprises, we have to look just outside the top 3, because at number 4 is Roelien Ritsema van Eck (see the box below). Ritsema van Eck is also the highest-ranked executive on the list. For the majority of her workweek, she serves as chair of the board of directors at housing association De Alliantie. In addition, she regularly sets aside part of a day for non-executive roles at companies including Univé and ABN AMRO Hypotheken Groep. ‘The fact that I am both an executive and a non-executive means I can really empathize with the board and understand what a director deals with on a daily basis,’ she told us earlier this year about that combination. And: ‘The added value also lies in the fact that I am ‘two-pronged,’ and active in both public and private organizations.’
In the second half of the top 10, there are also quite a few notable shifts. For example, Marike Bonhof (CFO of Ymere and supervisory board member at Stedin, among others) has risen from No. 8 to No. 5. Even more striking is the rise of Bianca Tetteroo (from No. 24 to No. 8) and Manon van Beek (from No. 21 to No. 9).
Tetteroo, who serves as CEO of Achmea Holding and non-executive director of RELX (formerly Reed Elsevier), was recently nominated as the new chair of the Dutch Association of Insurers. Earlier this year, as Achmea CEO, she used the presentation of the annual results to call for action to address the high rate of sick leave in the Netherlands, particularly among young women.
She called on everyone to take action and set a good example herself with Achmea: ‘We ran a pilot program where people can schedule their own shifts. That gives them the feeling that they can achieve a better work-life balance,’ she said in NRC.
Manon van Beek is likely to drop a few spots in the next edition of this list: after all, she is in her final months as chair of the board of grid operator TenneT; her successor, Frans Everts, the former CEO of Shell Netherlands, will take office in November.
Van Beek actually deserves an honorary distinction for her contribution to the energy transition and her relentless efforts to further expand and strengthen the Netherlands’ power grid.
New Faces
This year’s Top 100 Corporate Women list features 20 new faces—slightly more than last year, when there were 17 new entrants. A breath of fresh air is blowing through the entire list, but especially through the bottom half. The highest-ranked new entrant is Roelien Ritsema van Eck, mentioned above, at No. 4.
The top 3 of this sub-ranking also includes ING’s new Swedish-Norwegian CFO, Ida Lerner (No. 19, see box below) and insurance executive/literary scholar Ingrid de Swart (No. 20), the successor to Jos Baeten as CEO of insurer a.s.r. (see box above).
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With Lerner, we arrive at another subcategory: expats in the Netherlands. Lerner is not the only corporate woman of foreign origin (and not even the only Norwegian). More than a fifth of the women in the top 100 (that is, twenty-two) are not from the Netherlands. That is a slight increase compared to last year, when there were still eighteen foreign women on our list. Lerner is not even the highest-ranked non-Dutch woman—there are no fewer than five fellow expats ahead of her. The highest-ranked foreigner is British Shell CFO Sinead Gorman at No. 10 (No. 28 last year). Last December, Gorman was already named one of the 100 most powerful women in the world by the American business magazine Forbes (the Americans mistakenly overlooked Miriam van Dongen).
The German-Finnish Essimari Kairisto, a board member at, among others, grid operator TenneT and soil research firm Fugro, is the second foreigner on the list, at No. 11.
The French Laurence Debroux (former CFO of Heineken and currently, among other roles, a non-executive director of the Dutch investment firm Exor) ranks third on this sub-list (14th in the overall ranking).
Wolters Kluwer’s new top executive, the American Stacey Caywood, makes her debut on the list at No. 77. The second Norwegian on the list is Tone Bachke (new at No. 64), CFO of SHV Holding.
Most expats still come from neighboring countries, Scandinavia, or Anglo-Saxon nations. The most exotic country names on the list are Turkey (the country of origin of ING board member Pinar Abay, at No. 30) and Venezuela: Heineken’s chief people officer, Yolanda Talamo (No. 86), is from Caracas but holds American and Italian citizenship in addition to her Venezuelan nationality.
Farewell, grand old ladies
The fact that there are twenty newcomers also means that twenty women who were on the list last year have disappeared from it this year, whether temporarily or not.
Among them are a number of notable names, including some from last year’s top 10. For example, last year’s numbers 5 and 7 have (just) dropped out of the top 100: Mieke De Schepper (former CEO of tour operator Sunweb) and Annette Ottolini (former director of water company Evides).
Perhaps even more striking is the absence this year of two familiar faces from our list: the grand old ladies Nancy McKinstry (No. 26 last year) and Annemarie Jorritsma (No. 23 last year).
Both women, the former CEO of Wolters Kluwer and a former minister respectively, still contribute in supervisory and advisory roles occasionally, but no longer do so on our main stage. Jorritsma’s ‘retirement’ has, interestingly enough, had an immediately noticeable impact on the average age of our top 100.
In recent years, Jorritsma (born in 1950) has consistently been the senior member of our list, and partly thanks to her, the average age of our top 100 has risen steadily each year. That average age now stands at just over 57 years, marking the first slight decrease since 2018.
For the record: in 2018, the average was still under 55 years. By far the largest group on the list—namely fifty-eight people—are in their fifties. There are also thirty-four people in their sixties and eight in their forties. So there is no one in their seventies this year.
Jorritsma’s departure means we have a new senior member. That is the still very young and sprightly—at just 69 years old—Sonja Barendregt-Roojers (No. 58), supervisory board member of a.s.r. and Robeco. Berte Simons (COO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, no. 92, see box below) and Natalia Wallenberg (CFO at Ahold Delhaize, no. 55) are the youngest on the list, both born in 1982. According to the most common definition, they already belong to the millennial generation (born between 1981 and 1996).
Many CFOs
What is the ratio of executives to non-executives this year? There are sixty-four executive board members on the list, thirty-four of whom also hold one or more supervisory board positions. Among them are nineteen CEOs (or, if you prefer: managing directors, executive board chairpersons, or executive chairpersons). Also striking—as we mentioned in the introduction—is the relatively high number of women with a financial background. For example, no fewer than four of the new entrants are CFOs: the aforementioned Scandinavian duo Ida Lerner and Tone Bachke, as well as Enexis CFO Marjanne van Ittersum (No. 65) and the British Katie Slipper (Gasunie, No. 66). The list includes a total of 14 CFOs, among them Annemiek van Melick (NN, No. 15), Jolanda Poots-Bijl (Ahold Delhaize, No. 16), Charlotte Hanneman (Philips, No. 41), and Nynke Dalstra (Eneco, No. 56). Former CFOs and women with other financial backgrounds are also well represented. This is, incidentally, a trend that has been underway for some time. More than ten years ago, Professor Mijntje Luckerath concluded in a study that the relatively few top women in Dutch business are strikingly often CFOs. Luckerath said at the time: ‘It is a global trend. In many other countries as well, women are on average five times more likely to be CFOs than CEOs.’
A matter of conscience
This is the 16th edition of the Top 100 Corporate Women. Over the course of its illustrious history, the ranking has been led by seven different women. We have already praised the current leader, Miriam van Dongen, and number 3, Petri Hofste, at length above. Former PostNL CEO Herna Verhagen, the No. 1 in 2023 and still at No. 3 last year, now ranks at No. 26. Her departure from, in particular, the supervisory boards of ING and the Goldschmeding Foundation has cost her points. Annemiek Fentener van Vlissingen (the No. 1 in 2010) is still very much active on the boards of companies such as Heineken and SHV. She is also back in the top 10 in 2026 (at No. 6, just like last year). Marike van Lier Lels (No. 1 in 2011) has been out of the top 100 since 2024 (but is still active on supervisory and advisory boards).
Margot Scheltema (No. 1 in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015) last appeared on this list in 2023 (82nd). She, too, still serves on a number of advisory bodies. This marks the 16th edition of this illustrious Top 100.
What is next? At the offices of Management Scope, we sometimes discuss whether a Top 100 Corporate Women list is still relevant today. After all, we do not have a Top 100 Corporate Men list. Do women in 2026 still need their ‘own’ list? Has this battle not been won long ago? Unfortunately, the answer is no—the battle is far from over.
There are still companies and organizations that think they can get by without women at the top. In fact, there are still quite a few of them; in fact, an alarmingly large number. According to the most recent data (for 2024, published this March) from the Social and Economic Council (SER), fifty-six percent of the executive boards and 30.5 percent of the supervisory boards of large Dutch companies consist entirely of men.
Compared to other European countries, the Netherlands still ranks at the very bottom of the list when it comes to gender diversity at the top of the business world.
The SER data also shows that the number of women on executive boards has risen slightly; the number of female supervisory board members, however, has stagnated. The share of women on executive boards now stands at 17.3 percent. Growth on the supervisory boards, however, has stalled: that percentage has been hovering around 26 percent for three years now. Admit it: we are still far from the optimal balance. So, be certain: we will publish another list of 100 top women next year.
Let’s get loud
Finally, our wish list. First, a question: just how great are the power and influence of these 100 women, really? That is, of course, difficult to measure and verify.
The fact is that all 100 women on this list are involved in high-level discussions and decision-making regarding the direction of the most important companies and organizations in the Netherlands. That is very good news. But are they also involved in shaping the direction of the Netherlands? As far as we are concerned, the 100 women on this list should get a bit more proactively involved in the public debate in the Netherlands. That is obviously not exactly the core business of a board or supervisory board member, but anyone who searches for our 100 names in newspaper archives and search engines will notice that we hardly ever see these top 100 women at talk show tables, on BNR, or on NPO Radio 1. Hardly anywhere has a passionate opinion piece or an urgent appeal appeared.
Few of the top women on our list have spoken out publicly in the past year on issues such as the future of the labor market, the business climate, or the progress of the energy or climate transition. Apparently, the 100 feel little need to speak out publicly on certain social or even corporate issues. Or… are they simply not given the opportunity? It would not hurt if the most influential women in Dutch corporate life, precisely in the interest of Dutch corporate life, were to engage more in the debate about the future of the Netherlands.
About the Top 100 Corporate Women
Management Scope has published the Top 100 Corporate Women annually since 2010. Through a ranking, we provide insight into exactly who is at the helm of the major companies and organizations in the Netherlands. To arrive at a ranking, we assign a specific value to every position in the Dutch corporate sector. For the 2026 edition, the scoring system has been revised. Editor-in-Chief Timen Kraak: ‘In the new scoring system, the emphasis is slightly more on the day-to-day management of large companies and slightly less on supervisory roles. We believe this creates a more balanced and realistic picture of the true balance of power within corporate Netherlands.’ In addition to the Top 100 Corporate Women, Management Scope also publishes the Top 100 Supervisory Board Members and the Next 50 Supervisory Board Members every year. More info about the rankings and the methodology: managementscope.nl/top