CV of Professor Jan Peter Balkenende
Professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation, Erasmus UniversityRotterdam
Partner Corporate Responsibility EY
Former Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Jan Pieter (known as Jan Peter) Balkenende was born in Kapelle on 7 May 1956.
After completing his secondary education he went on to the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) where he studied history (graduating with an M.A. in 1980, with economic and social history as his main subject and economics and political science as subsidiary subjects) and Dutch law (graduating with an LL.M. in 1982, with public law as his main subject). He obtained his Ph.D. in law in 1992 with a thesis on government regulation and civil society organisations.
From 1982 to 1984 he was a legal affairs policy officer at the Netherlands Universities Council, the umbrella organisation for Dutch universities. He then served on the staff of the policy institute of the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) until 1998. As senior staff member he was responsible for social, economic and financial affairs, including development cooperation, technological innovation and European integration
Professor Balkenende was a member of Amstelveen municipal council from 1982 to 1998, and leader of its CDA group from 1994.
From 1993 to 2002 he was professor (part-time) of Christian social thought on society and economics at the Faculty of Economics of the Free Universityof Amsterdam.
From 1998 to 2002 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the States General for the CDA and financial spokesperson for the CDA parliamentary party. He was leader of the parliamentary party from 1 October 2001.
He has also been a member and vice-chair of the board of the broadcasting organisation NCRV, a member of the Amsterdam Regional Forum, chair of the Association of Christian Lawyers, member of the group on socially responsible business practice in the Royal Association MKB-Nederland, which represents employers in small and medium-size businesses, and a member of the board of the Parliamentary History Group.
On 22 July 2002, Professor Balkenende was appointed Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs in the first of four administrations to bear his name. His fourth term of office as Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs ran from 22 February 2007 to 14 October 2010. During this period he also served as chair of the Innovation Platform. He paid many official visits to other countries, often accompanied by trade missions representing Dutch companies.
Under his leadership, many reforms in the fields of social security, pre-pension facilities, public health, deregulation etc. wereachieved. The raising of the retirement age wasplacedsuccessfully on the agenda. Fiscal policy wasput on a much sounder footing. The financial and economic crisis that arose in 2008 was tackled effectively: the unemployment rate in the Netherlands is among the lowest in the world and the structure of the Dutch economy is strong. Professor Balkenende played a very active international role, in Europe (presidency of the European Council in the second half of 2004), in the G20 (although the Netherlands is not a formal member) and in the UN (with a special emphasis on issues like sustainable development, Millennium Development Goals and the WTO).
Since 1 December 2010 he has been Professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation at the Erasmus School of Economics and the Erasmus School of Law of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since 1 April 2011 he has been partner at Ernst & Young (BeNe Head Office, Rotterdam). In this capacity he is responsible for international affairs, corporate responsibility and advisory activities on public-private issues.
Professor Balkenende has received fivehonorary doctorates – intheology (Karoly Gazpar Reformed University, Budapest 2005), systems design and management (Keio University, Tokyo 2009),sociology (Yonsei University, Seoul 2010), humane letters (Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 2011), doctor in laws (Hope College, Holland, MI. 2012)– and other honours includingnine Grand Crosses (including Knight Grand Cross in the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau) and several international prizes.
He has written many books and articles, including: Government Regulation and Civil Society Organisations (1992), On Responsibility and Economics: What Next? (inaugural lecture, 1993), Responsibility and Law (1995), Trust and the Economy (1997), Different and Better (2002), Private Enterprise and Society (2003), Shaping Europe’s Future (2004), and Prime Minister, The Floor Is Yours (2010). He is the author of many policy documents on economic growth, social security, fiscal policy, poverty, development cooperation and innovation.
Professor Balkenende is married to Dr Bianca Hoogendijk, a specialist in labour law. They have one daughter, Amelie (born in 1999).
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