Neelie Kroes

Neelie Kroes (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈneːli ˈkrus]; born 19 July 1941) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businesswoman.[1]

Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes in 2018
European Commissioner for
Digital Agenda
In office
9 February 2010 – 1 November 2014
PresidentJosé Manuel Barroso
Preceded byViviane Reding
Information Society and Media
Succeeded byGünther Oettinger
Digital Economy and Society
Andrus Ansip
Digital Single Market
European Commissioner for Competition
In office
22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
PresidentJosé Manuel Barroso
Preceded byMario Monti
Succeeded byJoaquín Almunia
Minister of Transport and
Water Management
In office
4 November 1982 – 7 November 1989
Prime MinisterRuud Lubbers
Preceded byHenk Zeevalking
Succeeded byHanja Maij-Weggen
State Secretary for Transport
and Water Management
In office
28 December 1977 – 11 September 1981
Prime MinisterDries van Agt
Preceded byMichel van Hulten
Succeeded byJaap van der Doef
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
3 June 1986 – 14 July 1986
In office
25 August 1981 – 4 November 1982
In office
3 August 1971 – 28 December 1977
Parliamentary groupPeople's Party for
Freedom and Democracy
Personal details
Born
Neelie Kroes

(1941-07-19) 19 July 1941
Rotterdam, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Political partyPeople's Party for
Freedom and Democracy
(from 1966)
Spouse(s)
Wouter Jan Smit
(m. 1965; div. 1991)

Bram Peper
(m. 1991; div. 2003)
ChildrenYvo Smit (born 1970)
ResidenceWassenaar, Netherlands
Alma materRotterdam School of Economics
(Bachelor of Economics, Master of Economics)
OccupationPolitician · Economist · Businesswoman · Financial adviser · Researcher · Corporate director · Nonprofit director · Academic administrator · Lobbyist

Kroes applied at the Rotterdam School of Economics in July 1958 majoring in Economics and obtaining an Bachelor of Economics degree in June 1961 before graduating with an Master of Economics degree in September 1965. Kroes worked as a researcher at the Rotterdam School of Economics from September 1963 until April 1968 and as a corporate director for the transport company Zwatra Transport in Delft from April 1968 until August 1971 and as a corporate director of the Chamber of commerce of Rotterdam from July 1969 until August 1971. Kroes served on the Municipal Council of Rotterdam from September 1970 until April 1972.

Kroes became a Member of the House of Representatives after Henk Vonhoff was appointed as State Secretary for Culture, Recreation and Social Work in the Cabinet Biesheuvel I after the election of 1971, taking office on 3 August 1971. After the election of 1977 Kroes was appointed as State Secretary for Transport and Water Management in the Cabinet Van Agt–Wiegel, taking office on 28 December 1977. After the election of 1981 Kroes returned as a Member of the House of Representatives, taking office on 25 August 1981. The Cabinet Van Agt–Wiegel was replaced by the Cabinet Van Agt II following the cabinet formation of 1981 on 11 September 1981. After the election of 1982 Kroes was appointed as Minister of Transport and Water Management in the Cabinet Lubbers I, taking office on 4 November 1982. After the election of 1986 Kroes again returned as a Member of the House of Representatives, taking office on 3 June 1986. Following the cabinet formation of 1986 Kroes continued as Minister of Transport and Water Management in the Cabinet Lubbers II, taking office on 14 July 1986. Following the resignation of Minister of Defence Wim van Eekelen on 6 September 1988 Kroes was approached to succeed him but declined. The Cabinet Lubbers II fell on 3 May 1989 and continued to serve in a demissionary capacity. In June 1989 Kroes announced her retirement from national politics and that she wouldn't stand for the election of 1989. The Cabinet Lubbers II was replaced by the Cabinet Lubbers III following the cabinet formation of 1989 on 7 November 1989. Kroes retired from national politics and became active in the private sector and public sector and occupied numerous seats as a corporate director and nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards (McDonald's Netherlands, Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, Lucent, Nordic Investment Bank, Port of Rotterdam, Thales Nederland, Nedlloyd, Ballast Nedam, the Rotterdam chamber of commerce, Rembrandt House Museum and the NIBC Bank) and served on several state commissions and councils on behalf of the government (National Insurance Bank, Public Pension Funds APB, Mine Council and the Dutch Railways). Kroes also worked as a academic administrator serving as Rector Magnificus of the Nyenrode Business University from 1 June 1991 until 1 January 2000.

In October 2004 Kroes was nominated as the next European Commissioner from the Netherlands. Kroes was giving the heavy portfolio of Competition in the First Barroso Commission, she was installed as European Commissioner, taking office on 22 November 2004. In November 2009 Kroes was re-nominated as European Commissioner. She was given the heavy portfolio of Digital Agenda and was also appointed as one of the Vice-Presidents of the European Commission in the Second Barroso Commission, serving from 9 February 2010 until 1 November 2014.

Kroes retired after spending 28 years in national politics and returned to the private sector and public sector and again occupied numerous seats as a corporate director and nonprofit director on several boards of directors and supervisory boards (Merrill Lynch, Uber, Open Data Institute, Salesforce.com, One Young World) and as an advocate and lobbyist for the private sector and startup companies.

Kroes is known for her abilities as a negotiator and manager. Kroes continues to comment on political affairs as of 2020 and holds the distinction as the first woman who served as Minister of Transport and Water Management, starting a informal tradition of women serving as Ministers of Transport that has continued (safe for two exceptions 2002–2003 and 2007–2010) for over 37 years including the present holder Cora van Nieuwenhuizen.[2][3]

Career before politics

Neelie Kroes was born on 19 July 1941 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her father owned the transport company Zwatra.[4]

Kroes attended a Protestant grammar school in Rotterdam. She continued to 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 a Bachelor of Economics and later a Master of Economics degree 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.

State Secretary for Transport and Water Management Neelie Kroes during a debate on KLM in the House of Representatives on 21 March 1979.
Minister of Transport and Water Management Neelie Kroes during a financial debate in the House of Representatives on 30 July 1986.
Minister of Transport and Water Management Neelie Kroes and Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers during a press conference in The Hague on 20 May 1987.
European Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the Ministry of General Affairs on 28 October 2011.

Local and national politics

Neelie Kroes was first elected member of the Rotterdam city council for the VVD in 1970.

In 1971 she was elected to the House of Representatives, forcing her to stop her fellowship. In parliament, she became spokesperson for education. She remained a member of parliament until 1977, when she became State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management in the First Van Agt Cabinet, responsible for Postal and Telephone Services and Transport. In 1981 she briefly returned to the House of Representatives, 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 of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, a post that she held until 1989. As a minister she was responsible for the privatisation of the Postgiro (Postbank, initially a part of the PTT), the Post and Telephone Services, the Harbour Pilotage services, as well as the commissioning of the Betuwe Railway.

Kroes refused to become Minister of Defence in 1988.

During her tenure as minister, she was involved in the so-called TCR affair, about the illegal sale of warships. She had also a business relationship with a tank cleaning company (TCR), which illegally received governmental subsidies.

After national politics

After her ministerial career, Kroes spent two years working on two projects as an advisor to Karel van Miert, at that time European Commissioner for Transport.[5] She also 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 Dutch railroad company).

In 1991 Kroes 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.

According to her husband, Bram Peper, from 1993 to 2001 Kroes relied on astrologers and clairvoyants for personal and business advice. Until 2004 Kroes maintained an office in the castle of Jan-Dirk Paarlberg, a real estate mogul who was convicted to four and a half years in prison for money-laundering and extortion. One of the astrologers advising Kroes during that time was Lenie Drent, who had been providing business advice to Paarlberg for decades.[6]

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 was 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

Commissioner for Competition

In 2004 Kroes was appointed the European Commissioner for Competition. At the time, 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 chairperson of Nyenrode Business 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 sanctions against Microsoft by the European Commission, known as the European Union Microsoft competition case. This case resulted in the requirement to release documents to aid commercial interoperability and included a €497 million fine for Microsoft.

Kroes attended conferences organized by the Bilderberg Group every year between 2005 and 2012.[7][8]

In 2009 she was transferred to another European Commissioner post, namely ICT and Telecom. She was also appointed as one of the vice-presidents of the European Commission.

Commissioner for Digital Agenda

In 2010 she became European Commissioner for Digital Agenda in the second Barroso Commission. The Digital Agenda for Europe[9] was proposed by the European Commission on 19 May 2010. The Digital Agenda for Europe[9] is supported by the EU Digital Competitiveness Report[10] launched also on 19 May 2010. She is a proponent of Free and Open Source Software.

Since 2010 she has served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development which leverages broadband technologies as a key enabler for social and economic development.[11]

In 2010 it was suggested that she would become prime-minister in the Netherlands, when Mark Rutte would stay in parliament due to difficulties in the formations in the new Cabinet. However, eventually Rutte became prime-minister.

In December 2011 Kroes invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg - who had resigned as German Minister of Defence in March 2011 due to plagiarism charges - as advisor to the European Commission as part of its No Disconnect Strategy designed to promote Internet freedom.[12]

In November 2012 Kroes made international news when she said her advisers at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan had been the victims of computer hacking.[13]

Later career

Kroes is currently leading StartupDelta, a public-private initiative to help promote the Netherlands as a destination for startup companies.[14] For the 2019 European elections, she was brought into the European election campaign by Guy Verhofstadt's Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) in Belgium.[15]

In addition, Kroes has been holding a variety of paid and unpaid positions.

Personal life

Kroes was married to social democratic minister and mayor Bram Peper. She is a confidant of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, known for her criticism of Islam and having a fatwa issued, and persuaded her to switch allegiance from the social democratic PvdA to the VVD.

Corporate boards

Non-profit organizations

Controversy

In 2016, leaks to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (who also oversaw the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks) revealed that from 2001 to 2009 Kroes was the director of Mint Holdings, a company registered in the Bahamas.[20][21][22] As part of the EU rules, a commissioner is obliged to declare previous and current economic interests, but she did not declare her directorship of the Bahamas company.[20][21] Further, EU commissioners are not allowed to hold outside directorships while in office (Kroes was in office 2004–2014).[20][22] According to her lawyer, Kroes acknowledged the situation, calling it an "oversight", and declared that she would take full responsibility.[20]

Recognition

Awards

Kroes was International Road Federation Man of the Year of 1993.

Kroes made the Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list multiple times: as number 53 in 2009,[23] 47 in 2008,[24] 59 in 2007.

Decorations
Honours
Ribbon barHonourCountryDateComment
Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Netherlands 26 October 1981
Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown Belgium 1 May 2008
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau Netherlands 19 November 2015 Elevated from Grand Officer (20 November 1989)

Honorary degrees
Honorary degrees
UniversityFieldCountryDateComment
University of Hull Economics England 1989
Open University Political science Netherlands 26 September 2014

References
  1. (in Dutch) Neelie Kroes erelid VVD, Telegraaf, 29 November 2014
  2. (in Dutch) Dit wil Neelie Kroes in haar laatste jaar als startup-ambassadeur, Sprout.nl, 2 September 2015
  3. (in Dutch) Neelie Kroes adviseur van Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Telegraaf, 18 March 2015
  4. (in Dutch) Drs. N. Kroes. Parlement & Politiek. Retrieved on 2010-03-02.
  5. Imre De Roo (September 22, 2004) The Networker European Voice.
  6. http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2686/Binnenland/article/detail/2437064/2011/05/25/Bram-Peper-Astrologe-adviseerde-Neelie-Kroes.dhtml
  7. "Secretive Bilderberg over but was world domination discussed?". Archived from the original on 13 October 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  8. "Meeting 2010 Participants - Bilderberg Meetings". bilderbergmeetings.org. Archived from the original on 14 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  9. "Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - A Digital Agenda for Europe". European Commission. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  10. "Digital Agenda for Europe - A Europe 2020 Initiative" (PDF). Digital Agenda for Europe. 1 October 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Digital Agenda: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg invited by Kroes to promote internet freedom". European Commission. 12 December 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  13. "Internet security conference hacked". 3 News NZ. 13 November 2012.
  14. "StartupDelta". startupdelta.org. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  15. Eline Schaart (March 12, 2019) Former Commissioner Neelie Kroes running in European election Politico Europe.
  16. "Announcing Uber's Public Policy Advisory Board". Medium. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  17. Leslie Hook and Richard Waters (May 4, 2016), Uber picks up Neelie Kroes to navigate policy roadblocks Financial Times.
  18. "Neelie Kroes | Startup Fest Europe". Startup Fest Europe. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  19. "Global data leader and former European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes joins ODI Board". theODI.org. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  20. "Ex-EU commissioner Neelie Kroes failed to declare directorship of offshore firm". The Guardian. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  21. "Neelie Kroes under fire after leak reveals offshore business". Politico. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  22. "Bahamas leak shines spotlight on Neelie Kroes". Financial Times. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  23. "#53 Neelie Kroes". The 100 Most Powerful Women. Forbes. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
  24. "#47 Neelie Kroes; Competition commissioner, European Union". Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Forbes. 27 August 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
Official
Political offices
Preceded by
Michel van Hulten		 State Secretary for Transport
and Water Management
1977–1981		 Succeeded by
Jaap van der Doef
Preceded by
Henk Zeevalking		 Minister of Transport and
Water Management
1982–1989		 Succeeded by
Hanja Maij-Weggen
Preceded by
Frits Bolkestein		 European Commissioner
from the Netherlands
2004–2014		 Succeeded by
Frans Timmermans
Preceded by
Mario Monti		 European Commissioner
for Competition
2004–2010		 Succeeded by
Joaquín Almunia
Preceded by
Viviane Reding
as European Commissioner for
Information Society and Media		 European Commissioner
for Digital Agenda
2010–2014		 Succeeded by
Günther Oettinger
as European Commissioner for
Digital Economy and Society
Succeeded by
Andrus Ansip
as European Commissioner for
Digital Single Market
Business positions
Preceded by
Barend Biesheuvel		 Chairwoman of the
Supervisory board of the
NIBC Bank
1991–2004		 Succeeded by
Unknown
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by
Unknown		 Chairwoman of the
Supervisory board of the
Rembrandt House Museum
2000–present		 Incumbent
Academic offices
Preceded by
Unknown		 Rector Magnificus of the
Nyenrode Business University
1991–2000		 Succeeded by
Karel Van Miert
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