Ad Melkert
Adrianus Petrus Wilhelmus "Ad" Melkert is a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA) who attended the 1996 and 2001 Bilderberg meetings.
Education
Melkert studied Political science at the University of Amsterdam obtaining a Master of Social Science degree. Melkert worked as a political activist for the youth branch of the European Community in Brussels from July 1981 until March 1984 and as a director for the charity Oxfam Novib from March 1984 until June 1986.[1]
Career
After the election of 1986 Melkert was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives and became spokesperson for Development Cooperation and the Environment. After the election of 1994 Melkert was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Cabinet Kok I taking office on 22 August 1994. After the election of 1998 Melkert returned to the House of Representatives on 19 May 1998 and declined to be part of the new cabinet and was selected as Parliamentary leader on 13 July 1998.[2] Shortly before an upcoming election Party Leader Wim Kok announced his retirement and Melkert announced his candidacy to succeed him as Leader and was selected as his successor on 15 December 2001.
For the election of 2002 Melkert was top candidate, but suffered a large defeat and stepped down as Leader and Parliamentary leader on 16 May 2002 but continued to sit in the House of Representatives as a backbencher.
In October 2002 Melkert was nominated as an executive director of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund working there until March 2006. In 2007, Melkert's name surfaced in an issue concerning World Bank president [Paul Wolfowitz]]. There was heavy criticism of Wolfowitz for allegedly giving his girlfriend Shaha Ali Riza an exceptionally high promotion and salary increase.[3] The Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed on the issue in which Wolfowitz was largely exonerated, concluded that Melkert, as a member of the World Bank Ethics Committee, appears to have played an " extraordinarily cowardly role.[4]
He was nominated as an Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he sat until July 2009 when he was appointed as the Special Representative for the United Nations in Iraq until his resignation in October 2011.
Melkert continued to be active in politics and in December 2015 was nominated as a Member of the Council of State on 20 January 2016.
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1996 | 30 May 1996 | 2 June 1996 | Canada Toronto | The 44th Bilderberg, held in Canada |
| Bilderberg/2001 | 24 May 2001 | 27 May 2001 | Sweden Stenungsund | The 49th Bilderberg, in Sweden. Reported on the WWW. |
