Ben Verwaayen

Verwaayen is the fifth of six children born to a family who owned a chemicals business in Driebergen.[2] At school, he organised the first student parliament, and after graduating from Utrecht University with a degree in law and international relations in 1975, wanted to be a journalist or politician.[2]

On graduation, he decided to immediately undertake his National Service with the Royal Netherlands Army, where he founded the Algemene Vereniging Nederlandse Militairen (General Association of Dutch soldiers), a union that existed until 1996.

On leaving the army, to enable him to continue his work with the trade union, he joined a subsidiary of ITT Corporation because it gave him time to sit on a Dutch state committee to reform the army.[2] His first promotion came after he went to the European Union Parliament in Brussels to protest about the company's alleged role in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government in Chile; ITT responded by making him its Netherlands public relations chief.[3]

In 1988, Verwaayen became a director of PTT Telecom, the state-owned Dutch telecoms group that was a forerunner of today's KPN; and then was appointed a board member of Lucent Technologies in 1997, moving to the United States. A committed Anglophile,[4] he became CEO of BT in 2003.[5] During his time there, he was also a board member for Dutch television production company Endemol, and chaired the Confederation of British Industry committee on climate change.[4] There was controversy over his management style at BT, with accusations that BT Global Services had to write down substantial losses and that Verwaayen was to blame.[6][7]

After standing down from BT on 1 June 2008 when Ian Livingston took over,[8] there was speculation that he would pursue a career in Dutch politics.[3] On 2 September 2008 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Verwaayen as the company’s chief executive officer, succeeding Patricia Russo. In March 2009, he forwent a €520,000 cash bonus after a pay freeze had been imposed on staff and a loss-making 2008.[9] He was less restrained in later years; his salary increased by 30% between 2010 and 2012, even as losses continued at the company.[10][11]

On 22 February 2013 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Michel Combes as the company’s CEO, succeeding Verwaayen, effective April 1.[12] He joined Akamai Technologies as a director in November 2013.[13]

In 2016, Verwaayen founded Keen Venture Partners, a venture capital firm providing early growth capital for technology companies.[14]

Married to Helena, the couple have two children.[4] They currently reside in Paris, but had a family home in Haslemere, Surrey where Verwaayen hosted a party in summer 2008, attended by 1,300 guests including former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, UK government ministers Stephen Twigg and John Denham.[2] Verwaayen, a tennis player himself, put on a celebrity tennis match between John Lloyd and Ilie Năstase,[2] and is also a fan of Arsenal F.C..[4]