Neelie Kroes

Neelie Kroes
Neelie Kroes in 2010
European Commissioner for Digital Agenda
In office 9 February 2010 – 1 November 2014
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Viviane Reding (Information Society and Media)
Succeeded by	Günther Oettinger (Digital Economy and Society) Andrus Ansip (Digital Single Market)
European Commissioner for Competition
In office 22 November 2004 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Mario Monti
Succeeded by	Joaquín Almunia
Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management
In office 4 November 1982 – 7 November 1989
Prime Minister	Ruud Lubbers
Preceded by	Henk Zeevalking
Succeeded by	Hanja Maij-Weggen
State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management
In office 28 December 1977 – 11 September 1981
Prime Minister	Dries van Agt
Preceded by	Michel van Hulten
Succeeded by	Jaap van der Doef
Personal details
Born	(1941-07-19) 19 July 1941 Rotterdam, Netherlands
Political party	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Spouse(s)	Wouter Jan Smit (1965–1991) Bram Peper (1991–2003)
Alma mater	Erasmus University
Religion	Protestantism
Website	Official site

Neelie Kroes (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈneːli ˈkrus]; born 19 July 1941) is a Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). She served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 3 August 1971 until 28 December 1977 when she became State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management from 28 December 1977 until 11 September 1981, in the Cabinet Van Agt I. And again a Member of the House of Representatives from 27 August 1981 until 4 November 1982, when she became Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management from 4 November 1982 until 7 November 1989, in the Cabinets Lubbers I and II.

After a long period of working on the board of commissioners of several multinational corporations she returned to active politics when she became the European Commissioner for Competition for the Barroso Commission. She continued to serve in the second term in the Barroso Commission as the new European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and became one of several Vice-Presidents of the European Commission.

Career before politics

Neelie Kroes was born on 19 July 1941 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her father owned the transport company Zwatra.

Kroes attended a Protestant grammar school in Rotterdam. She continued to a Protestant high school. In 1958 she went to study economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 1961, Kroes was praeses of the R.V.S.V. (the largest Rotterdam sorority). She was also elected as a member of the University Council. After obtaining her Master of Science in economics in 1965, she became a research fellow at the economic faculty at that university. During this period Kroes was involved in the women's organisation within the VVD. In this period she also was member of the board of heavy transporting company "ZwaTra", the company of her father.

Local and national politics

Neelie Kroes and Wim Simons in 1975

Neelie Kroes was elected member of the Rotterdam city council for the VVD since 1970.

In 1971 she was elected to the House of Representatives, forcing her to stop her fellowship. In parliament, she became spokesperson for education. She remained a member of parliament until 1977, when she became State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management in the First Van Agt Cabinet, responsible for Postal and Telephone Services and Transport. In 1981 she briefly returned to the House of Representatives, while her party, VVD, was in the opposition. In 1982 she returned to office in the First and Second Lubbers Cabinets, now as the Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, a post that she held until 1989. As a minister she was responsible for the privatisation of the Postgiro (Postbank, initially a part of the PTT), the Post and Telephone Services, the Harbour Pilotage services, as well as the commissioning of the Betuwe Railway.

Kroes refused to become Minister of Defence in 1988.

During her tenure as minister, she was involved in the so-called TCR affair, about the illegal sale of warships. She had also a business relationship with a tank cleaning company (TCR), which illegally received governmental subsidies.

After national politics

After her time as minister Kroes became a member of the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce, furthermore she served as a board member for Ballast Nedam (shipping), ABP-PGGM Capital Holdings N.V. (a joint subsidiary of the pension funds ABP and PGGM), NIB (an investment bank), McDonald's Netherlands, Nedlloyd, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen (the Dutch railroad company).

In 1991 she became chairperson of Nyenrode University, a private business school. During this period Kroes also was a member of the Advisory Board of the Prof.Mr. B.M. Teldersstichting, the scientific bureau of VVD.

According to her husband, Bram Peper, from 1993 to 2001 Kroes relied on astrologers and clairvoyants for personal and business advice. Until 2004 Kroes maintained an office in the castle of Jan-Dirk Paarlberg, a real estate mogul who was convicted to four and a half years in prison for money-laundering and extortion. One of the astrologers advising Kroes during that time was Lenie Drent, who had been providing business advice to Paarlberg for decades.

Kroes has held and still holds many side offices, mainly in cultural and social organisations. She is chairperson of Poets of all Nations, the Delta Psychiatric Hospital and of the board of the Rembrandt House Museum. Also, she is was a member of several boards of commissioners, for instance at Nedlloyd (a shipping company) and Lucent Technologies (an information and communication technologies company).

European Commission

Commissioner for Competition

Neelie Kroes as European Commissioner for Competition in 2007

In 2004 Neelie Kroes was appointed the European Commissioner for Competition. Her nomination was heavily criticised because of her ties to big business and alleged involvement in shady arms deals. Kroes has tried to uphold her integrity; whenever she has to deal with issues concerning competition in branches of industry in which she used to be active as a board member, Commissioner McCreevy takes over her responsibilities. As of January 2006 this has happened in five cases.

As chairperson of Nyenrode Business University, Kroes awarded an honorary doctorate to Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996. As a European Commissioner for Competition one of her first tasks in 2004 was to oversee the sanctions against Microsoft by the European Commission, known as the European Union Microsoft competition case. This case resulted in the requirement to release documents to aid commercial interoperability and included a €497 million fine for Microsoft.

Kroes attended conferences organized by the Bilderberg Group in 2005 and 2006.

Neelie Kroes made the Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list multiple times: as number 53 in 2009, 47 in 2008, 59 in 2007, 38 in 2006 and number 44 in 2005. She is sometimes called "Nickel Neelie". She apparently earned her nickname because she's tough in the same vein as the UK "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher when dealing with competition issues.

In 2009 she was transferred to another European Commissioner post, namely ICT and Telecom. She was also appointed as one of the vice-presidents of the European Commission.

Commissioner for Digital Agenda

In 2010 she became European Commissioner for Digital Agenda in the second Barroso Commission. The Digital Agenda for Europe was proposed by the European Commission on 19 May 2010. The Digital Agenda for Europe is supported by the EU Digital Competitiveness Report launched also on 19 May 2010. She is a proponent of Free and Open Source Software.

She was in attendance at the Bilderberg conference in Sitges in Spain from 3 to 6 June 2010.

Since 2010 she has served as a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Digital Development which leverages broadband technologies as a key enabler for social and economic development.

In 2010 it was suggested that she would become prime-minister in the Netherlands, when Mark Rutte would stay in parliament due to difficulties in the formations in the new Cabinet. However, eventually Rutte became prime-minister.

In December 2011 Kroes invited Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg - who had resigned as German Minister of Defence in March 2011 due to plagiarism charges - as advisor to the European Commission as part of its No Disconnect Strategy designed to promote Internet freedom.

In November 2012 Kroes made international news when she said her advisers at the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan had been the victims of computer hacking.

After the European Commission

Kroes is in the process of setting up StartupDelta, a public-private initiative to help promote the Netherlands as a destination for startup companies.

Miscellaneous information

• Kroes, a liberal, was married to social democratic minister and mayor Bram Peper.
• Kroes has been a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion since 1981 and a Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau since 1989.
• Kroes was International Road Federation Man of the Year of 1993.
• Kroes is a confidant of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, known for her criticism of Islam and having a fatwa issued, and persuaded her to switch allegiance from the social democratic PvdA to the VVD.
• Kroes is a regular attendee of the annual Bilderberg Group meetings.
• Kroes, as president of the Nyenrode Business University, has granted Bill Gates an honorary PhD.

External links

• Neelie Kroes Official Media Gallery
• Neelie Kroes as European Commissioner of Competition
• Neelie Kroes as European Commissioner of Digital Agenda
• (Dutch) Drs. N. Kroes at parlement.com

Political offices
Preceded by Michel van Hulten	State Secretary for Transport, Public Works and Water Management 1977–1981	Succeeded by Jaap van der Doef
Preceded by Henk Zeevalking	Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management 1982–1989	Succeeded by Hanja Maij-Weggen
Preceded by Frits Bolkestein	Dutch European Commissioner 2004–2014	Succeeded by Frans Timmermans
Preceded by Mario Monti	European Commissioner for Competition 2004–2010	Succeeded by Joaquín Almunia
Preceded by Viviane Reding as European Commissioner for Information Society and Media	European Commissioner for Digital Agenda 2010–2014	Succeeded by Günther Oettinger as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society
		Succeeded by Andrus Ansip as European Commissioner for Digital Single Market