Coordination

dr. R. Elte

Ronald Elte (1948) has been a moderator of the National Comenius Course since January 2011. Ronald Elte (1948) studied Social Sciences in Amsterdam and Leyden and took his PhD in Rotterdam on a thesis on public administration. He has worked in jobs at e.g. the Ministry of Education, the University of Leyden, the School Inspectorate and the Auditor General. He has changed from a fulltime government job to a part-time job at a specialist consultants agency. Ronald has worked in Ruanda to help strengthen the national auditor of the country and is now involved in the start-up of a university for business education in Benin.

drs. F.P.M. van den Ende

Frank van den Ende (1950) studied Fiscal Economics at the University of Groningen. Frank started his professional career in 1982 at Ernst & Young as a tax consultant; he was appointed partner in 1990. In 1992 he founded an Entertainment & Media sector group which was later expanded with Telecommunication and Technology sectors to become a TMT sector group. During that time he took the initiative, inter alia, to set up what is now known as the E&Y ICT Barometer. After the foundation of the European firm he became chairman of the Technology sector group in 22 countries. As of 2003 he has been responsible for the non-audit services to one of the largest Dutch multinational companies and he managed a global team of 200 professionals with the focus on China, India, USA, Brazil and Mexico. He is a moderator for the European Comenius Course.

drs. Ch.J.P.M. van Megen

Charles van Megen (1958) studied Business Management at the University of Groningen. He has almost twenty years of experience in ICT/Telecommunication and Publishing and has worked in several European countries as well as the USA and Asia. Charles has been an executive manager for companies including AT&T, KPN, KPNQwest and Wegener. He is currently the CEO of his own consultancy agency. Here, the focus in on strategy development, change and leadership. He advises executive management of national and international companies on questions that are related to the labour production factor. He is a moderator for the course New Leadership in the Financial Sector.

drs. H.Th.A. Schildkamp

Henk Schildkamp (1946) studied Medicine and spent 1973 to 1979 working as a doctor in the tropics, for the Athlone Hospital in Botswana. Subsequently, he ran a GP practice in rural Twente (NL) for a number of years. From 1993 he carried out the functions of general director for RZG, chairman of the Board of Directors of Geové RZG, and chairman of the Board of Directors of Menzis. He is a moderator for the European Comenius Course, as well as the Chinese Comenius Course and the American Comenius Course.

drs. F.A.J. Veerman

Fred Veerman (1950) studied Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, and Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam. His career alternated between management and consultancy roles. For instance, he managed a joint venture in freight traffic, a paper factory (in the former GDR), a beer factory (in former Czechoslovakia), a grammar school, the National Service for Road Traffic, and Rhineconsult b.v. Public. He advised, inter alia, the government of Cameroon (Central Africa) about the organisation of government hospitals, the Ghanaian authorities about public transport and the minister of Economic Affairs about the gradual reduction of subsidies to the shipbuilding industry and the aviation industry. He is currently the owner/director of a consultancy agency. He is a moderator for both the European Comenius Course and the American Comenius Course.

drs. E. van der Vet

Eric van der Vet (1947) studied Adult Education, and his specialist subject was Organisational Science. He started his working life as a teacher and then moved across to managerial functions in the wider sector of care, well-being and education. He held managerial and directorial functions in youth care, he was a member of national boards of management, and was the head of Human Resources at a bank/insurance company. In the last ten years he has been active as an independent interim manager, researcher, supervisor, advisor, and coach. He is a moderator for the National Comenius Course.

ir. G.R. Visser

Eric van der Vet (1947) studied Adult Education, and his specialist subject was Organisational Science. He started his working life as a teacher and then moved across to managerial functions in the wider sector of care, well-being and education. He held managerial and directorial functions in youth care, he was a member of national boards of management, and was the head of Human Resources at a bank/insurance company. In the last ten years he has been active as an independent interim manager, researcher, supervisor, advisor, and coach. He is a moderator for the National Comenius Course.

ir. C.J. Vriesman

Ir. Cornelis Jacob (Kees) Vriesman is a civil engineer. After his period as a scientist at the Technical University of Delft, he held policy-making and management functions at Rijkswaterstaat/Deltadienst and VROM. Subsequently he became chairman of the board at the construction firm, Moes Bouwbedrijf. He then moved to ABN-AMRO in 1993 to serve as the director of Corporate Real Estate. Starting 1998, Kees Vriesman was the Director General for Spatial Planning (at the Ministry of Housing, Regional Development and the Environment). In the period up to 2002 several important reports were written under his responsibility, including the Fifth Memorandum for Spatial Planning and the Land Policy Memorandum. In those years Vriesman also initiated the foundation of the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research. In 2001 he became the Director General of the Forest Administration Agency, where, with over 250,000 hectares of nature, he was responsible for working on a sustainable living environment. As of 2007 he has had several positions including director of the executive programme ‘Stad-Land in the Randstad’ [City and countryside in the Randstad area], chairman of the Airports Spatial Development Committee (VROM/V&W). From 2009 to 2010 he ended his professional career as the – acting – Mayor of Den Helder. During his entire career Kees Vriesman has held a wide range of management positions and commissionerships. He is a moderator for the Chinese Comenius Course and the American Comenius Course.

prof.dr.ir. F.A. Bais

Sander Bais (1945) passed his engineer’s exam in Technical Physics at the Technical University of Delft in 1973. He left for California and, in 1977, completed his promotional research in the field of theoretical elementary particle physics at the University of California (UCSC) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Subsequently he was a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), the University of Leuven, the CERN accelerator centre (Geneva), and the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Utrecht. In 1985 he was appointed professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2006 he has been working as an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute in the USA.

prof.dr. H.M. Dupuis

Heleen Dupuis (1945) has been a member of the VVD fraction [the Dutch Liberal Party] in the Eerste Kamer [the Dutch Upper House] since 8 June 1999. She was a professor of Medical Ethics at Leiden University, chairwoman of the Ethical Advice Council of Sanguin, and vice-chair of the Medical Ethics Commission of the Leiden University Medical Centre. In the Eerste Kamer Ms Dupuis deals with public health, science policies, and higher education and development partnerships. She is first vice-chair of the Eerste Kamer.

prof.dr. R.M.G.E. Foqué

René Foqué (1946) studied Law and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, and French language and literature at the University of Lille (France). He is professor of Philosophy of Law and Theory of Law at the Faculties of Law of the Catholic University of Louvain and the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. He is also the director of the Louvain Centre for Fundamental Research of the Law, and correspondent of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.

prof.dr. F.G.A. van der Meché

Frans van der Meché (1950) was the head of the Neurology department at the Erasmus Medical Centre from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2007 he was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Erasmus MC and responsible for portfolios such as Finances and Patient Care. From 2007 to the end of 2009 he chaired the Erasmus MC Holding BV. Frans van der Meché is currently connected to Twynstra Gudde Management Consultancy. He focuses primarily on questions related to quality and safety in Care, key areas for executive managers and supervisors in the Care sector, and on knowledge valorisation.

prof.dr. H. Renner

Hans Renner (Prague, 1946) has been working for the University of Groningen and has been appointed extraordinary professor in Central European history. He specialises in European communist history since World War II and in the transformation processes of the communist societies to democratic societies. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for Education and Research at the Clingendael Institute, a board member of the Groningen Journalism Association, and vice-chair of the Joint Czech-Dutch Historians Commission.

Mr. J. Lagendijk

Joost Lagendijk (1957) is working at the Istanbul Policy Center since 2009, the think tank of the Sabanci University in Istanbul. He is mainly engaged in the relations between Turkey and the European Union and with the internal developments in Turkey and the EU. Joost Lagendijk was a member of Groen Links at the European Parliament from 1998 to 2009. His main focus in parliament was the EU enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey. From 2002 he was chairman of the Turkish delegation of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the Parliament on Kosovo from 2005 on. He graduated as a historian at the University of Utrecht in 1985.

prof.dr. J.L. Blussé

Leonard Blussé is a Sinologist and a historian for Western-Asian relations and a prominent China expert. He is a guest lecturer at many universities and symposiums both at home and abroad. Leonard Blussé is an expert on the history of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company., and considers it his job to make the unbelievably rich Dutch archives accessible to researchers from Asia. He has also been the author of two non-fiction books, Bitters Bruid [Bitter’s Bride], a colonial marital drama taking place during the Dutch Golden Age (17^th century), and Retour Amoy {Return to Amoy]. In 1998 Blussé received a Gouden Uil Prize in the non-fiction category for Bitters Bruid. During the Chinese Comenius Course Leonard travels along on behalf of Comenius.

drs. G.A. Möller

George Möller (1947) held jobs at e.g. Pierson, Heldring & Pierson where he was heading the London office. In 1996 George Möller was appointed General Director of the EIE Optiebeurs and, after the merger with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, he became the president director of Amsterdam Exchanges in 1997. He is one of the founding fathers of the European stock exchange, Euronext. He was appointed member of the Executive Board of Euronext. In 2003 he also served as a member of the Tabaksblat Commission. In 2004 George Möller left Euronext to be appointed chairman of the board of Robeco Group NV in July of the same year. Starting 1 January 2010 he was appointed chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Netherland Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) by the Dutch Minister of Finance, Wouter Bos.