Ben Verwaayen

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Person.png Ben Verwaayen   IMDBRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
( businessman)
Ben Verwaayen 2009.jpg
Born11 February 1952
 Driebergen,  Province of Utrecht
Nationality Dutch
Alma mater Utrecht University
Children 2
Spouse Helena
Member ofEuropean Round Table of Industrialists, Paley Media Council, WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow/1994
PartyPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Dutch businessman who attended Bilderberg/2004 as CEO of British Telecom. WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow/1994. One of the closest advisors of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Bernardus Johannes Maria "Ben" Verwaayen is a Dutch businessman and Bilderberger who was one of the closest advisors of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He was selected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1994.

Early life

Verwaayen is the fifth of six children born to a family who owned a chemicals business in Driebergen.[1]

Education

At school, he organised the first student parliament, and graduated from Utrecht University with a degree in law and international relations in 1975.[1]

Career

On graduation, he did his military conscription 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.[1] His first promotion came after he went to the European Parliament in Brussels to talk about (presumably to defend or dismiss) the company's infamous role in the military coup against Salvador Allende's government in Chile; ITT rewarded him by making him its Netherlands public relations chief.[2]

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,[3] he became CEO of British Telecom in 2003.[4] 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".[3]

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.[5][6]

After standing down from BT on 1 June 2008 when Ian Livingston took over,[7] there was speculation that he would pursue a career in Dutch politics.[2] 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.[8] He was less restrained in later years; his salary increased by 30% between 2010 and 2012, even as losses continued at the company.[9][10]

On 22 February 2013 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Michel Combes as the company's CEO, succeeding Verwaayen, effective 1 April.[11] He joined Akamai Technologies as a director in November 2013.[12]

In 2016, Verwaayen founded Keen Venture Partners, a venture capital firm providing early growth capital for technology companies.[13] Since April 2020, he has been Chairman of Renewi plc.[14]

Politics

Verwaayen has been a longtime member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. He sat in its executive for ten years, and also contributed to its election programme for the 2006 Dutch elections. At various times, he was linked with a Cabinet position. The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte named him as one of his closest advisors.[15]

Honours

Verwaayen has received various honorary awards and has been made Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau (Netherlands), Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire KBE (United Kingdom), and a knight in the Legion of Honour (France).

Personal life

Married to Helena, the couple have two children.[3] 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.[1] Verwaayen, a tennis player himself, put on a celebrity tennis match between John Lloyd and Ilie Năstase,[1] and is also a fan of Arsenal F.C.[3]


 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/20043 June 20046 June 2004Italy
Stresa		The 52nd such meeting. 126 recorded guests
WEF/Annual Meeting/200625 January 200629 January 2006Switzerland
WEF		Both former US president Bill Clinton and Bill Gates pushed for public-private partnerships. Only a few of the over 2000 participants are known.
WEF/Annual Meeting/200724 January 200728 January 2007Switzerland
WEF		Only the 450 public figures listed of ~2200 participants
WEF/Annual Meeting/201027 January 201031 January 2010Switzerland
WEF		The organizing theme for the 40th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2010 was "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild."
WEF/Annual Meeting/201126 January 201130 January 2011Switzerland
WEF		2229 guests in Davos, with the theme: "Shared Norms for the New Reality".
WEF/Annual Meeting/201225 January 201229 January 2012Switzerland
WEF		2113 guests in Davos
WEF/Annual Meeting/201323 January 201327 January 2013Switzerland
WEF		2500 mostly unelected leaders met to discuss "leading through adversity"
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References

  1. ↑ a b c d e https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/07/ccprof107.xml&page=2
  2. ↑ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20080910192730/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/07/ccprof107.xml
  3. ↑ a b c d https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/07/ccprof107.xml&page=3
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080515200303/http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Theboard/BenVerwaayen/BenVerwaayen.htm
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090519071101/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/bts-livingston-is-drinking-at-the--lastchance-saloon-1686033.html
  6. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/5325650/Ex-BT-boss-Ben-Verwaayen-in-firing-line-over-losses.html
  7. ↑ http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article3708801.ece
  8. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/057ca204-171d-11de-9a72-0000779fd2ac.html
  9. ↑ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/alcatel-lucent-unions-call-for-executive-salary-cut
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120610234118/http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/DocumentStreamerServlet?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=Financial_Info%2FIncome_Statements%2FIR-Alcatel-Lucent-20-F2011.PDF
  11. ↑ Alcatel-Lucent names Michel Combes as CEO Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Reuters, 22 February 2013
  12. ↑ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/board_directors.html
  13. ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/04/keen-venture-partners/
  14. ↑ https://www.renewi.com/en/about-renewi/our-role/waste-journal-articles/renewi-appoints-ben-verwaayen-as-non-executive-chairman
  15. ↑ Maarleveld, Derick-H. (2011). In gesprek met Mark Rutte. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker. p. 238. ISBN 978-90-351-3649-6.
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