Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes | |
|---|---|
| European Commissioner for Competition | |
| Assumed office November 22, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Mario Monti |
| Minister of Transport and Water Management | |
| In office November 4, 1982 – November 7, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Henk Zeevalking |
| Succeeded by | Hanja Maij-Weggen |
| State Secretary of Transport and Water Management | |
| In office December 28, 1977 – September 11, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Michel van Hulten |
| Succeeded by | Jaap van der Doef |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 19, 1941 Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| Political party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) |
| Website | ec.europa.eu |
Neelie Kroes (born July 19, 1941 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland) is a Dutch politician and businessperson.
Neelie Kroes was a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Later she was the Dutch State Secretary and Minister of Transport and Water Management. Neelie Kroes was member of the board of commissioners of several multinationals. She currently is the European Commissioner for Competition.
Career before politics
Kroes went to a protestant grammar school in Rotterdam. She continued on a Protestant high school. In 1958 she went to study Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 1961, Kroes was praeses of the R.V.S.V. (the largest Rotterdam Sorority). She was also elected as a member of the University Council. After obtaining her Master of Science in Economics in 1965, she became a research fellow at the economic faculty at that university. During this period Kroes was involved in the women's organisation within the VVD. In this period she also was member of the board of Heavy Transporting company "ZwaTra", the company of her father.
Local and national politics
Neelie Kroes was elected member of the Rotterdam city council for the VVD since 1970.
In 1971 she was elected to the lower house of parliament, forcing her to stop her fellowship. In parliament, she became spokesperson for education. She remained a member of parliament until 1977, when she became junior minister of Transportation and Water Management in the First Van Agt Cabinet, responsible for Postal and Telephone Services and Transportation. In 1981 she briefly returned to the lower house of parliament, while her party, VVD, was in the opposition. In 1982 she returned to office in the First and Second Lubbers Cabinets, now as the minister for Transportation and Water Management, a post that she held until 1989. As a minister she was responsible for the privatisation of the Post and Telephone Services, as well as the commissioning of the Betuwe-railway.
Kroes refused to become minister of Defense in 1988.
After politics
After her time as minister Kroes became a member of the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce, furthermore she served as a board member for Ballast Nedam (shipping), ABP-PGGM Capital Holdings N.V. (a joint subsidiary of the pension funds ABP and PGGM), NIB (an investment bank), McDonald's Netherlands, Nedlloyd, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen (the privatized Dutch railroad company).
In 1991 she became chairperson of Nyenrode University, a private business school. During this period Kroes also was a member of the Advisory Board of the Prof.Mr. B.M. Teldersstichting, the scientific bureau of VVD.
Kroes has held and still holds many side offices, mainly in cultural and social organisations. She is chairperson of Poets of all Nations, the Delta Psychiatric Hospital and of the board of the Rembrandt House Museum. Also, she is still a member of several boards of commissioners, for instance at Nedlloyd (a shipping company) and Lucent Technologies (an information and communication technologies company).
European Commission
In 2004 Neelie Kroes was appointed the European Commissioner for Competition. Her nomination was heavily criticised because of her ties to big business and alleged involvement in shady arms deals. Kroes has tried to uphold her integrity; whenever she has to deal with issues concerning competition in branches of industry in which she used to be active as a board member, Commissioner McCreevy takes over her responsibilities. As of January 2006 this has happened in five cases.
As chairperson of Nijenrode University, Kroes awarded an honorary doctorate to Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996. As a European Commissioner for Competition one of her first tasks in 2004 was to oversee the fining brought onto Microsoft by the European Commission (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case).
Kroes attended conferences organized by the Bilderberg Group in 2005 and 2006.
In 2006 Neelie Kroes was number 38 on Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list,[1] in 2005 she was number 44.[citation needed]
In 2007 Neelie Kroes is number 59 on Forbes' The 100 Most Powerful Women list [2]. She has been given the nicknames "Nickel Neelie" and "Steely Neelie" because of her toughness dealing with anti-trust issues.
Open standards/ Open Source
Kroes has stated she believes open standards, and open source are preferable to anything proprietary:[3]
The Commission must do its part.....It must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards, and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology – jeopardizing maintenance of full control over the information in its possession
Miscellaneous information
- Kroes, a liberal, was married to social democratic minister and mayor Bram Peper.
- Kroes has been a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion since 1981 and a Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau since 1989.
- Kroes was International Road Federation Man of the Year of 1993.
- Kroes is a confidant of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and persuaded her to switch allegiance from the social democratic PvdA to the VVD.
References
- ^ "#38 Neelie Kroes". www.forbes.com. Forbes. 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); External link in|work= - ^ Neelie Kroes #59 on Forbes'
- ^ Open source as industrial policy
External links
- Neelie Kroes at the European Commission website
- Drs. N. Kroes at parlement.com