Renewed Supervisory Board

As of January 1, 2016, the Netspar Foundation will have a new, smaller, Supervisory Board. Job Swank (DNB) has been reappointed and will succeed Jean Frijns as Chair. Else Bos and Marco Keim have also been reappointed by the Foundation Board. Cees Oudshoorn and Gijs van Dijk will stay on as board members representing Stichting van de Arbeid (the national Labour Foundation) and there is a vacancy for the Tilburg University seat. There is another vacancy, as well, for the Foundation Board seat. A candidate has already been put forward, who should be able to be nominated for appointment soon.

This reconfiguration of the Supervisory Board was taken in line with the recommendation from the partner evaluation of 2014 that the organization be simplified. Previously, the Partner Research and Partner Education Councils were merged as part of the efforts to accomplish this. The governance structure of the Netspar Foundation was critically examined in 2015, and it was decided that the position and advisory role of the Foundation Board, as the highest representative body, should be strengthened, while the Supervisory Board would turn its focus more toward control. As a result, the Foundation Board will be asked for its advice before the Supervisory Board adopts budgets and work plans in the future, and the number of seats on the Supervisory Board has been reduced from ten to seven.

Four of the seven members are appointed by the Foundation Board. Else Bos, Marco Keim, and Job Swank were willing to remain on for another term. That has left one vacancy to fill, for which a candidate is available, who is expected to be put forward soon to the Foundation Board for nomination. Board members Jeroen van Breda Vriesman, Dick Sluijmers, and Han van Dissel have resigned their positions; Jean Frijns has also resigned.

In addition to the four members appointed by the Foundation Board, the Supervisory Board includes two members appointed by the Stichting van de Arbeid (Cees Oudshoorn and Gijs van Dijk) and one member appointed by Tilburg University (TiU). The TiU seat is vacant. Netspar is working with the Executive Board of TiU to find someone to fill this seat.

The Board of Directors and the Foundation Board are grateful to the departing Supervisory Board members, especially Chair Jean Frijns, for their guidance in positioning Netspar solidly as a think tank and knowledge network in the field of pensions, aging and improving the options for funding retirement in the Netherlands.