Karel Vuursteen
 Karel Vuursteen       (businessman) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | July 25, 1941 Arnhem, The Netherlands | |||||||||||
| Nationality | Dutch | |||||||||||
| Alma mater | Wageningen University | |||||||||||
| Parents | • Cornelis Willem • Hendrika Eliza Weddepohl | |||||||||||
| Member of | Trilateral Commission | |||||||||||
Dutch Heineken executive who attended the 1995 and 1996 Bilderbergs. Conspired with other brewers to form a price cartel.
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Karel Vuursteen is a Dutch business executive. He is a former chairman of Heineken, where he conspired with other brewers to form a price cartel. He attended the 1995 and 1996 Bilderbergs.
Education
Vuursteen graduated from the Agricultural University of Wageningen.
Career
He worked at Philips from 1968 to 1991, where he held various management positions in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Germany and the USA. From 1990 to 1991, he was president and CEO of Philips Lighting in North America.
After this career at Philips, he became a member of the board of Directors of Heineken NV in 1991. He was vice chairman from 1992 to 1993 and was chairman from 1993 to 2002. In the end, Vuursteen resigned as chairman for personal reasons and since then he has been a commissioner at Heineken Holding.
The European Commission has documents that show that Vuursteen was regularly present in secret discussions and was actively involved in a cartel of brewers (Heineken, Bavaria, Grolsch and InBev). This cartel was fined by Brussels in April 2007 for 273 million euros for price agreements in the period 1996 to 1999.[1][2]
Other positions
He was member of the Supervisory Boards of Ahold, Electrolux (Wallenberg Sphere company)[3], ING, Gucci, Henkel KGaA (Germany), AkzoNobel and TomTom.[4]
In addition to being a commissioner at various companies, Vuursteen is chairman of the Concertgebouw Fund Foundation and vice chairman of the Supervisory Board of Nyenrode Business University.
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
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| Bilderberg/1995 | 8 June 1995 | 11 June 1995 | Greece Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel Vouliagmeni | The 43rd Bilderberg. Held at the Burgenstock Hotel in Burgenstock, Switzerland. |
| Bilderberg/1996 | 30 May 1996 | 2 June 1996 | Canada Toronto | The 44th Bilderberg, held in Canada |
