Ea Magazine UK by Erasmus University Rotterdam

May 2012

From Rotterdam to CuraĂ§ao In the news in 1997â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1998 EUR and the new campus

erasmus alumni magazine

Precise case lawyer

A day in the life of alumna Nathalie van Woerkom

06 • 07• 08 julY2012 North sea jazz festival Van Morrison • D’Angelo • Tony Bennett • Ron Carter Golden Striker Trio Michael Kiwanuka • Pat Metheny Unity Band • Lenny Kravitz • Gregory Porter José James • Robert Glasper Experiment • Trijntje Oosterhuis • Rufus Wainwright James Morrison • Jill Scott • Caro Emerald • George Benson • Hugh Laurie David Murray Blues Big Band featuring Macy Gray • The Kyteman Orchestra Ahmad Jamal • Amos Lee • Wayne Shorter Quartet • Michel Camilo • Aloe Blacc Gretchen Parlato • Lianne La Havas • McCoy Tyner Trio with Ravi Coltrane Bernhoft • and many more...

On the way to 2013

Foundation Day treasure hunt

A hot air balloon on the Institutenlaan? Has it made an emergency landing? After some nifty acrobatics it has managed to land safely alongside the H-Building and the University Library pond. The letters PH indicate that it is a Dutch aircraft and the sandbags around the basket tell us it is a classic gas balloon filled with hydrogen. ‘Nimbus’ is attracting a lot of attention. Have the lecture theatres of the C-Hal emptied by any chance?

The balloon was part of the programme during the Foundation Day celebrations on 8 November 1972, the EUR anniversary when it was known as the ‘Nederlandse Economisch Hogeschool’ for the last time. The balloon was used for a treasure hunt. At 11 a.m. the Boesmans, a ballooning couple from The Hague, took to the

air accompanied by the notes of a brass band. The wind determined their course. In their wake students followed on the ground, desperate for the envelopes that the couple threw to the ground on tiny parachutes. If you managed to lay your hands on such an envelope you were a prizewinner. Good prizes too: some LPs,

several bottles of sherry and, the pièce de résistance, a portable radio. The prize-giving ceremony was at 2 p.m., before the honorary doctorate for Prof. J.J. Polak. And after the official public ceremony it was time for the ball. The celebrations in the Lecture Theatre Hall lasted long into the night.

The photo was taken by an employee of the Rotterdam Medical Faculty’s Audiovisual Service. EUR historic photo archive. Text Cora Boele

Time is ﬂying by. On 26 June it will be just five hundred days until the official celebration of the centenary of Erasmus University on 8 November 2013. The programme is beginning to take shape and all existing academic events will be given a festive note in academic year 2013-2014. All faculties will award an honorary doctorate during the centenary celebrations, the renovated campus will be officially opened in the autumn and the University will also involve the city of Rotterdam in the celebrations. www.eur.nl/100

erasmusalumni. magazine

Foreword May 2012

Dear Alumnus,

Pauline van der Meer Mohr, Chair of the Executive Board of the Erasmus University Rotterdam

For many of you, your student days will have been the best days of your life. A time that you look back on with a great deal of pleasure and perhaps some nostalgia. I too treasure wonderful memories of my years as a student at Erasmus University. It was the time that formed me as the person I now am, a time when I discovered my qualities and when my ambitions were awakened. Of course there was also fun to be had with new friends within and outside the University walls. You continue to see some friends but lose touch with others, and you regularly wonder how they are getting on. Unsurprising, therefore, that a survey of alumni about this magazine showed that you like to read what your former fellow-students have got up to since graduating. Extra attention is consequently paid to this in this edition. Many memories are also attached to the campus itself, but you would be surprised if you were to visit Woudestein or Hoboken now. Erasmus University would not be a Rotterdam university if there were not a substantial amount of pile driving and construction work, obviously with the aim of arming the campus for the future and creating plenty of new memories. We will also extensively focus on this in this edition. In the autumn of 2013, at the start of the centenary year, the renovated campus will be officially opened and you are warmly invited to attend. For me, after more than two years ‘back in the EUR nest’, one of my greatest pleasures is to see today’s students in action. Not just out of nostalgia for the past, but also because I can see the important contribution this University is making to their lives and to society. I am glad that as an alumna, and now in the role of chair, I can help my alma mater. There are many more tasks within the University for which we could use the knowledge and help of alumni. So when will I see you back at Erasmus University?

Pauline van der Meer Mohr blog.eur.nl/voorzittercvb

Colophon The Erasmus Alumni Magazine/ EA is published by the Marketing & Communication Department of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Edition Volume 2, EA 4 May 2012 The next edition of EA will be published in October 2012

Editorial Address EUR, SM&C dept PO Box 1738 3000 DR Rotterdam alumni@smc.eur.nl www.eur.nl/alumni Managing Editor Carien van der Wal, Alumni &Corporate Relations Officer Editors Wieneke Gunneweg,

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Editor-in-Chief Mieke Fiers, Desk Editor

including Erasmus MC, IHS and ISS

Contributors Lobke van Aar, Cora Boele, Ronald van den Heerik, Eveline van de Lagemaat, José Luijpen, Geert Maarse, Pauline van der Meer Mohr, Dennis Mijnheer, Sanne van der Most, Dieudonne van der Veen, Steef van de Velde, Kees Vermeer, Henk Weltevreden, Levien Willemse, EUR faculties

Advertisements Carien van der Wal, Dan Dinu Translation University Translation and Correction Service, Groningen Printing Van Deventer, ‘s-Gravenzande

Design Unit20: Yoe San Liem and Maud van Velthoven Editorial Advisory Board (RAC) The RAC is made up of representatives of the EUR’s faculties and alumni associations and has an advisory role with regard to the production of EA. Cover Ronald van den Heerik

Contents 06 Back to college 08 Erasmus News 11 From Rotterdam to Curaรงao 12 A day in the life of Nathalie van Woerkom 18 Enterprising alumni 19 Column: Henk Weltevreden 20 Focus on research 22 Science News 24 In the news in 1997-1998 26 EUR and the new campus 31 Why Rotterdam? 32 Alumni Affairs 37 Column: Steef van de Velde

39 Family Portrait

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Back to college

Babs van der Kooy: ‘My parents taught me to get the most out of what you’ve been given, which is the reason for the extra Master.’

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‘This adds depth to my work as a doctor’ Babs van de Kooy (28) works as a doctor/researcher at the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Erasmus MC. She is also doing a Master’s degree in Science Epidemiology. ‘Being a doctor is more than just giving someone a pill.’

text Kees Vermeer photo Levien Willemse

When did you do your degree? ‘I studied Medicine in Rotterdam from 2001 to 2007. During my studies I did a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from 2003 to 2005 at the Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences, NIHES.’ What did you do after that? ‘I worked for a year and a half at the Sint Franciscus Gasthuis hospital. I then started my PhD research at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Erasmus MC. That is what I am now doing. I started a Master’s programme in Epidemiology at NIHES in 2010, which will end in September 2012.’

‘I can’t concentrate as long now. I think this is funny.’ Why are you doing an extra Master’s degree? ‘I did the first Master’s degree mainly because it meant I could go abroad. I spend a month at a summer school in Baltimore. The focus of that Master’s degree was research and how you set it up. The second Master’s degree is further increasing my knowledge of epidemiology and public health. My parents taught me to get the most out of what you’ve been given, which is the reason for this extra Master’s degree. I am currently working on the programme “Ready for a Child” (Klaar voor een Kind), the aim of which is to reduce infant mortality in Rotterdam. It has a lot to do with public health. You learn to see the bigger picture and are challenged to think more broadly. As a doctor you care for individuals, but you also see how data about health and disease lead to certain policies. The Master is the theoretical support for the fieldwork. It adds depth to my work as a doctor.’ What will you be able to do with it? ‘The knowledge will enable me to do even better research. Research needs to be done into whether the arrival of the Birth Centre at the Sophia Children’s Hospital has had any ef-

fect and thus reduced birth problems. You can do that with epidemiology.’ What attracts you about epidemiology? ‘I want to know whether, for example, an innovation in care works. Being a doctor is more than just giving someone a pill. With epidemiology you deal a lot with statistics and big groups of patients, but in the end it all comes back to the individual patient in the consultation room. If, for example, you are aware of the risk factors of a disorder you can inform the patient of them. Furthermore, there is a lot of creativity in epidemiology. There are many measurement and research methods and you must try and find an effective and implementable method. I find this exciting.’ What is it like to study again? ‘More difficult than I had expected. I can’t concentrate as long now. I find this quite funny. You take longer to take in the material.’ Can you combine it with your work and private life? ‘That’s not a problem. I don’t have any ties. I do a lot of sport but that’s easy to combine with the programme. And it’s also necessary for relaxation. I’m training at the moment for the Dolomite Marathon in Italy and also hope to do a half triathlon. As far as work goes, the courses made a nice change from my research.’ Will you have finished studying once you have done this? ‘No, not yet. I’m first going to continue on to PhD research, but may start a different programme again at some point. You’re never old to study!’ Fancy studying again too? Different faculties and institutes of the EUR offer postgraduate training. See, for example, www.erasmusacademie.nl and www.erasmusmc.nl/onderwijs Photographer Levien Willemse studied Social History at the EUR from 1981 to 1989

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Erasmus news

Relatively relaxed The student days of...

‘He was good at cornering people in discussions’

Erasmus University students experience much less study stress than students elsewhere in the country. These are the results of a survey about study pressure conducted by Erasmus Magazine and nine other university magazines. Nationwide, 40 percent of students suffer from extreme stress; in Rotterdam this is 32 percent.

They are now in the spotlight but once they sat in the lecture theatre like everyone else. Or did they stand out already, even then? EA takes a look at the student days of famous EUR alumni. This time: outgoing Minister of Finance Jan Kees de Jager. It is now known as E-commerce but at the end of the 1980s it did not have a name and was still in its infancy. The students Jan Kees de Jager and Karel van der Woude saw a potential source of income in it. In their student room-cum-office, they started a business. ‘It became serious quite quickly,’ says Van der Woude. ‘There was

his year group in the association. Whether it was drinks at the association, weekends away or paintballing, you could count on De Jager being there. ‘He always liked to get into discussions,’ Verhulst remembers. ‘He was always armed with facts and was good at cornering people.’ He laughs, ‘And that over-excessive reliance on Diet Coke

‘I look back to my study days with a great deal of pleasure. I am often at the EUR and see that little has changed. It is still an inspiring environment. Jan Kees de Jager a natural division between us. Jan Kees familiarized himself with the newest technology. He was very curious about its possibilities. Innovation is a word that suits him well.’ They combined the business with their studies. De Jager did not give the impression that he studied a great deal, says Pieter Verhulst, a fellow member of the Laurentius student association. De Jager was the oldest of the fourteen members of

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was typical of Jan Kees even then.’ The club members still meet up ‘irregularly’. ‘We even visited him at the ministry once.’ Van der Woude, still director of the business, ISM eCompany, is not surprised that his business partner eventually became a minister. ‘He has always been politically active, understands economics and can view policy decisions from an entrepreneur’s perspective.’

Dramatic Boat Race On 7 April Alumnus Roel Haen took part in The Boat Race, the traditional rowing race on the Thames between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The Boat Race was a disaster. First it was interrupted by a swimmer, then Haen’s boat broke an oar and then one of his fellow rowers collapsed from exhaustion. Haen studied Medicine at EUR and is now doing research on breast-cancer surgery at the University of Oxford. Haen won the Varsity five times with the Skadi rowing team.

Erasmus news

EA calls...

Gaudium Student Association Gaudium ceased to exist last year. Its former members keep in touch through the Gaudium alumni association. EA phones association secretary Rick van Setten van der Meer. “What happened to Gaudium? ‘We did not have enough new applicants. I get the impression that this is something affecting all student associations, but we were the smallest.’ Now you are an alumni association. What is different now? ‘There are no new members and we no longer have a building. We don’t need one though: our members are spread across the whole country. We do organize meetings: just recently we held a reception, which was very well attended.’ What are the advantages of the new situation? ‘The age of the former members varies greatly. The different layers now meet each other. With the more studenty character that it used to have the older members did not come as often. We all need different kinds of activities now. We still hold receptions, however.’ Were you a member of Gaudium? Do get in touch. www.gaudium.nl

Universities Games to Rotterdam The biggest European sporting event for students is coming to Rotterdam in 2014. The European Universities Games went to the EUR at the end of November. Alumni are urgently asked to think along/work/organize/support or help in any other way. Mail menso.de.maar@erasmussport.nl

WHITE COAT - Wearing a white coat as a doctor entails a great deal of responsibility. In order to emphasize this Erasmus University has introduced the ‘White Coat Ceremony’. Fourth-year medical students who are soon to begin their residency get a chance to reflect upon their profession and how they should deal with patients. And they receive their first white coat. The first White Coat Ceremony took place on 8 March 2012 with 125 medical students. (Photo: Levien Willemse)

Rotterdam, Leiden, Delft not merger but alliance The universities of Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam are opting for a strategic alliance. A merger is therefore off the agenda. The alliance must be ‘a catalyst’ for the existing collaboration. This appears in a joint memo entitled More Value. The three universities (LDE – Rotterdam has opted for the E for Erasmus in the abbreviation of the collaboration) have established six ‘academic domains’ in which they want to work together and complement each other. The collaboration will take the shape of joint ventures between the three South Holland province universities, who have been investigating far-reaching collaboration since September 2010. There will be LDE Centres for specific fields

of expertise and LDE Graduate Schools, including Master’s programmes and PhD tracks. The memo forms the joint chapter in the strategic plans that all universities must have completed before the summer, on the instructions of outgoing State Secretary of Higher Education, Zijlstra.

erasmusalumni. magazine 09

Erasmus news

‘A clear message for recruiters: do not wait until the end of the academic year to start looking for top talent.’ Prof.dr. Steef van de Velde, Dean of RSM, reacts to the RSM Graduate Placement Survey 2011, a survey of the career perspectives of its graduates. More than 70% of students start looking for a suitable job before they graduate.

Brief news

Useful programmes Anyone who follows a part-time programme that is considered useful by the government, such as in the ‘shortage sectors’ of education and care, will be able to receive a grant from 2017 to meet the costs of the programme. Anyone following a less ‘useful’ parttime programme must meet the costs themselves. It is not yet clear which programmes precisely are considered ‘useful’.

Study delay fine Many students are worried about the study delay fine (for anyone who takes more than four years for a degree). This also applies to part-timers. State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra has announced that part-time students who receive the fine ‘due to special, individual circumstances’ can now make an appeal to the graduation funds of the institutions. Up to now these have only been open to full-time students.

All sixty ECTS credit points in the first year The large majority of the new first-year students at Erasmus University will have to earn all sixty ECTS credit points in one year. The number of possible resits is being reduced and passes can be used to compensate for fails. The measures are called ‘Nominaal = Normaal’ (Official = Normal) and are intended to help students study quickly. The Faculty of Social Sciences began a pilot last year, and this is now being extended. The number of possible resits and the extent to which students can use higher marks for one course unit to compensate for a fail in another will differ per faculty. At the Erasmus School of Law (ESL) there will be no restrictions on first-year students compensating for 5s, as

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long as they have an average mark of 6.0 at the end of the year. At the same time, ESL is introducing a completely new programme: Erasmus Law College. First-year students will learn the theory and practise their skills in study groups: groups of ten students will analyse a case under the supervision of a tutor. Lectures and practicals complete the programme, which is structured according to a uniform didactical model. (foto: RvdH)

New structure part-time Law The Erasmus School of Law (ESL) is revising the structure of its part-time programmes as of next academic year. From then on the lectures will be given on a Friday morning and students will complete a course unit in five rather than eight weeks. This means that they will be able to complete their Bachelor’s degree in four years and therefore avoid the study delay fine. The new system is mainly to ensure that the students form more of a group. They now follow the course units when they want and therefore have little contact with each other.

From Rotterdam to Curaçao

A dip in the sea before the working day begins After graduating from Rotterdam University in Business Economics in 1995, Dieudonne van der Veen returned to Curaçao. He now works as a director of finance & accounting, a consultant and sits on the supervisory board of a bank. Monday Today is my sister’s birthday. She is now 41, which is no mean feat. I will buy her a present later and will end the day enjoying a whisky and coke at her birthday party with the family. But at the moment I am working on a project to improve the financial reporting of the company where I work. We are going to automate the reports as much as possible and pour them into one mould. In my opinion the employees should spend more time on analyzing and understanding rather than in creating reports.

Curaçaoan government (undoubtedly in the Dutch media too). This has an effect on consumer and investor confidence, not just on the island but abroad as well. This makes everyone cautious and the economy is consequently on the backburner. As they say, you take the good with the bad. It is sometimes an island of extremes. I spend the rest of the day in the office dealing with different treasury matters. We discuss such things as cashflow prognoses and make preparations for the next funding round.

Sunday Tuesday Got up at 5.15 this morning. I decide to take a dip in the Caribbean before the working day begins. After I have taken my five-year-old son to school just after 7 a.m., I head straight for the beach. That is the good thing about Curaçao: you are never more than about a quarter of an hour from the beach. The water is cold (25 degrees is cold for the tropics), but refreshing. Having swum for about ten minutes, I shower there and then set off to work. What more could you want? Don’t get me wrong: we work hard here. But we party and relax just as hard, if time permits. A good work-life balance, if you ask me. That is why I returned to Curaçao after studying in Rotterdam. At the time I had the possibility of a good job, but it is difficult to maintain this lifestyle in the Netherlands.

Thursday As a member of the supervisory board of a local bank I sit on the audit committee. We have a meeting today. After two hours of questions and answers with the internal audit manager, we end with a session with the financial director and the CEO. The bank is doing well, but it is clear that the island economy is going through a light recession. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of negative reports about the

My Sundays follow a fairly fixed pattern: I get up at 6.30, go on a 25-kilometer bike ride on my mountain bike, enjoying the cool morning air (a cool 26 degrees Celsius) and the stunning nature on my beautiful island. Then it’s a quick swim in the clear, blue water on one of the beaches. At a quarter to twelve I enjoy an early lunch with my wife and son in Zanzibar restaurant at the beach, after which we return home for a rest. It is hot in the afternoon, today at 1.17 p.m. the needle is at 32 degrees Celsius. It is much too hot to do anything outside. The air-conditioning goes on and we play on the Wii. At 5.00 p.m. I go out cycling again, this time as a family. Unfortunately, it begins to rain. But the batteries have been charged and we start the week on a positive note.

Dieudonne van der Veen is a Business Economist (EUR, 1995), registered accountant (NIVRA, 2004), CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, 2008) and CICA (Certified Internal Control Auditor, 2009). In 2002 he joined the water and electricity board on Curaçao, first as financial manager and later as the director of financial-economic affairs. On 1 March 2012 he moved to HUCOR-Holding (hotel and catering industry) as director of Finance & Accounting.

erasmusalumni. magazine 11

A day in the life of Nathalie van Woerkom

Battling for the last square millimetre Alumna Nathalie van Woerkom

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She is one of the few women in the world of mergers and acquisitions. EA spent a day with alumna Nathalie van Woerkom, lawyer and partner at AKD Advocaten & Notarissen. ‘I spend most of my time ploughing through contracts.’ text Geert Maarse photo Ronald van den Heerik

It is a quarter to nine in the morning when Nathalie van Woerkom turns off the Erasmus Bridge in her black BMW X5. The rows of cars at the traffic lights are bathed in a darkorange morning light. Van Woerkom’s office is on the 28th floor of the Maastoren. It is a modest corner office. No expansive windows offering spectacular views, no minibar, no huge lounge area. There is a trolley with half a dozen gift-wrapped bottles of champagne: presents for the people who, after more than two months of intensive negotiations, will be signing on the dotted line today. It is the day of the closing, as the completion of a company takeover is known in the mergers & acquisitions, or M&A, world. Van Woerkom – golden blonde hair, grey shoes, shiny black Moncler jacket – grabs a few last things and thrusts the previously announced non-disclosure agreement under your reporter’s nose. Canon is taking over Delft Diagnostic Imaging today, a Dutch company specializing in medical software solutions and X-ray systems. It is not a billion-dollar deal, but it is big and complex enough for the selling party to call in a team of experienced lawyers. Above: Nathalie van Woerkom as a student Left: Nathalie van Woerkom at the offices of AKD Advocaten & Notarissen in the Maastoren in Rotterdam

Minister of Economic Affairs Van Woerkom (41) is considered one of the best M&A lawyers in the Netherlands. She represents companies that are taking over, or being taking over by, other companies, and supervises reorganizations, management buy-outs, international investmentsand private equity transactions.

erasmusalumni. magazine 13

A day in the life of Nathalie van Woerkom

Her name regularly crops up in trade journals. They say she is typical of Rotterdam. No frills. The embodiment of the new level-headedness. Bij ons in de BV, the business programme presented by Jort Kelder, placed her as the only woman in an alternative cabinet, as Minister of Economic Affairs. She is cheerful, with a girlish figure, slim and athletic (she runs ten kilometres every other day). She is alert and talks fast, but combines that with a relaxed, sometimes even stoical demeanour. A woman in a man’s world, although she would say

Kakelbont and in the Tropicana Restaurant – it was still open then. However, she was primarily a hard-working student. She joined the RVSV student association, but only from her second year: she first wanted to pass the propedeutic phase. She still regularly eats with the other association members from her year group. She graduated in 1993, with an average mark of eight and two specializations: private law and company law. AKD has five offices: Amsterdam, Breda, Brussels, Eindhoven and Rotterdam. Going by the number

‘In that enormous pile of papers she suddenly saw a link between page 2 and page 46’ her femininity does not play any role whatsoever in her work. After her Law degree at Erasmus University she worked first for the Buruma firm and then for Andersen. When the latter collapsed in 2002 as a result of the Enron scandal, she ended up at AKD. She became a partner at 33. ‘I have a business within a business. Apart from the responsibility for the good running of my cases, I must also ensure that we attract new clients, that my team is trained and that people continue to work for me. This variety is what makes it so enjoyable. With each project I get to deal with another business. A company that develops apps works completely differently from a temp agency. You spend your time solving problems. Combing through contracts and checking that there can be no discussion about a particular section. This makes it an intellectual challenge.’

First the propedeutic certificate She was brought up on entrepreneurship. She grew up in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, where her father was the director of an American company that dealt in tectyl and lubricant products; her mother was a housewife. Both hammered into her how important it is to be ambitious, ‘My mother even more perhaps than my father.’ She actually wanted to study Business Administration, but failed to gain a place in the ballot. So she opted for Law instead. She worked at Villa

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of lawyers the firm is among the top five in the Netherlands, but it has a different personality from the big boys such as NautaDutilh and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. Van Woerkom says, ‘We have a strong focus on midmarket transactions. Not the big stock-market flotations and billion-dollar deals. We want to help our clients and be physically close to them. That is why we have several offices: it’s much more practical if you have an office close by. Otherwise you have to go all the way to the Zuidas area of Amsterdam for every little trifle.’

Saving clauses However, you cannot avoid the Amsterdam Zuidas. Not today either. Stibbe, the law firm that Canon has taken on, is based there. At 10.15 a.m. Van Woerkom and a colleague climb into Van Woerkom’s car, which a trainee chauffeur will be driving today. Too late, because the meeting is planned for 11.00. No trace of stress. The mileage is noted down and whilst she sends an e-mail via her iPhone, which will stay in her hand all day, she says with a smile, ‘They’ll start with a cup of coffee anyway.’ They have worked since November on a purchase agreement that is acceptable to both parties. A battle for every square millimetre between the Stibbe lawyers and Van Woerkom’s team. Not about the price but about terms of warranty and saving clauses. The result: a wad of paper as thick

as a phone directory that details, for example, who is liable should anything should suddenly go wrong in the production process a year after the takeover. A single misplaced word can have huge financial consequences. They have considered every risk. The meeting room at Stibbe is on the sixteenth floor. There are twenty chairs around the big, oval conference table. On the floor is an offwhite carpet, and on show behind glass is an extensive collection of leather-bound law books and case law, which go back to the beginning of the 19th century. At the table next to Van Woerkom and her colleague sit Guido Geerts (the selling party), two financial advisors (the older of whom is wearing a dollar tie for the occasion), four Stibbe employees (a junior notary and three lawyers) and two Japanese representatives from Canon, who have come specially from London. As well as a cappuccino or double espresso almost everyone has a laptop, telephone or iPad within reach. This is where it is going to happen. This is what the hours spent on the phone have all been for, what they have worked through the nights and changed endless passages for. Even now at the last moment, a few more clauses go back and forth. The girl in the corner of the room who sorts the papers into a several-metres-long rack resembling a bike-rack receives a new version every now and then. ‘Days like this are fun,’ says Van Woerkom. ‘This work can be quite stressful. Working days until ten or eleven in the evening are extremely common. We have worked towards this point for months. A closing is a form of release.’

Fully committed ‘She’s a real fighter,’ Guido Geerts, the client, will say about Van Woerkom a few days later. ‘I was really impressed. I didn’t realize at first, but the commitment she shows and the speed at which she works is extraordinary. She suddenly saw a link between page 2 and page 46 in that enormous bunch of articles. For me it was all doubleDutch, a nuance that I could not appreciate. But it proved to be very important legally speaking.’ Patrick Polak, director of Newion Investments, regularly hires her for a takeover. ‘A few years

erasmusalumni. magazine 15

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A day in the life of Nathalie van Woerkom

ago she was heavily pregnant,’ he says. ‘I needed her and didn’t know exactly when the baby was due. So I phoned to ask, and found out that she had given birth three days before. I said, “Why the hell are you answering the phone?” She said, “Well, you called, didn’t you?” That’s what she’s like. Fully committed.’ Despite the stereotypical image of lawyers – slick types in fast cars – Van Woerkom’s work mainly consists of reading. A lot of reading. ‘You have to keep up to date with the literature, the case law,’ Van Woerkom says. ‘You need to know your stuff if you want to join in. The greater part of your time is spent going through sixty-page contracts. Plodding away, making changes, ensuring that documents are exactly how I want them to be. And if you are dealing with a case you must make sure that you are always available. In the evening, at night, regardless of whether you’re ill or not.’

husband is often abroad for his work and there are weeks in which she too only eats at home a few times. So yes, it can be a bit of a puzzle. Saturdays are devoted to the children anyway, with football and her son’s hockey team that she coaches. And she tries to find as much time as possible to fit in reading at school and other activities. ‘I am the opposite of my mother, who was always at home. As a child I liked that. But if your mother works, you get to experience other things. My children are learning to be independent somewhat sooner. Of course there are times when I wonder why I don’t do something else. There have been times when they couldn’t get hold of me when my son had fallen down. A nosebleed, that sort of thing. You can’t avoid it. I purposely live close to my work, so I can get home quickly if anything does happen. And so I don’t have a long commute.’

Rabbits out of hats Reading at school

From the top floor of the AKD offices you have a fantastic view over Rotterdam.

Colleagues and friends sometimes wonder whether she is not asking too much of herself. Patrick Polak says, ‘It comes at a price if you want to continue to perform at this level. I wouldn’t be able to keep it up.’ Angelique Martens, who has worked as a junior notary at AKD with Van Woerkom for more than ten years, says, ‘No one can put in such a top performance and be the perfect mother and the perfect wife. As a woman you sometimes have to make choices about where you want to be.’ It is that familiar and unavoidable discussion about career women. Van Woerkom, who has three children (five, seven and eight-years-old), smiles when the subject arises. Her

At 7.30 p.m. Van Woerkom, her AKD colleague, the client and the two financial men sit down at a table in the Eau de Vie Restaurant (‘Ron Blaauw was full; can you believe it?’). The takeover is in the bag, but there is a bit of a fuss about a bank guarantee. The corks should really have been popping at lunchtime today, after one of the Canon representatives had initialled the huge pile of papers and the notary had handed round the closing binders printed in golden lettering. But – ‘a final rabbit is always pulled out of the hat’ – it turned out to be somewhat later. A last conference call is held during the meal. A discussion with Stibbe and a conversation with the buyers, who have had to change their flight. The five of them sit bent over an iPhone that lies on the tablecloth among the scallops and glasses of white wine. Despite the best will in the world, it is not possible to settle the matter during this one-and-a-half-hour long telephone call. The shares are transferred the next day at four in the morning. It is nearly midnight when the garden gate opens and the X5 drives over the little bridge onto the driveway. In the clear night a few weak stars twinkle. The house is fast asleep. One last question: does she think many people would like her job? ‘It depends. Ambitious people definitely. They would really enjoy it. But I can imagine people might say they would hate to have to work so much and have all that stress. It’s a choice you make. And for me it’s the right one.’ Geert Maarse studied Business Administration (2006) and Cultural Studies (2008) at the EUR, where he also did a Master’s degree in Media & Journalism (2009). Ronald van den Heerik studied Philosophy at the EUR from 1979 to 1983.

erasmusalumni. magazine 17

Enterprising alumni

Setting out to sea with entrepreneursto-be text Eveline van de Lagemaat photo Ronald van den Heerik

What is it? 24MONTHS is an initiative of Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Holland Program on Entrepreneurship (HOPE). 24MONTHS matches talented young people with ambitious businesses. The young talents want to become entrepreneurs. After a tough selection process they get to work on three eight-month assignments (24 months in total) within a business. They are given a lot of autonomy here, and they receive intensive supervision from 24MONTHS during the programme. Businesses offer the trainees a challenging assignment and a great deal of independence. Interested in being a trainee or in providing an assignment? Go to www.24months.nl

18 erasmusalumni. magazine

The company gets fresh, enterprising talent for a specific assignment; the graduate gets a serious chance to take a look behind the scenes. 24MONTHS sounds like a win-win situation. Ask Peter Pesselse about the added-value of the 24MONTHS project and he could not be more complimentary: ‘You bring in enthusiastic, enterprising talents who tackle an issue in your company independently, with the right knowhow, energy and a fresh, out-of-the-box approach.’ Pesselse is managing director of CARU Containers. CARU leads Europe in the field of sales, rental and leasing of new and second-hand containers, and has taken on two trainees from 24MONTHS. One of them is Sabrina Kestens, an alumna of Erasmus University. She started work at the container firm in January. Her assignment is to capture the market for offshore containers.

‘Intrapreneur’ During her studies Kestens had her own small business, but found it too big a leap to continue with this after she graduated. Once she had been awarded her degree in 2010, as an economist specialized in Urban Port and Transport Economics, she worked for a year and a half as a graduate trainee at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. ‘In government there is a consultation culture, so it takes a long time for decisions to be made. We could sometimes spend a whole day in a meeting and would still not have reached a decision,’ she says laughing. ‘At CARU there is a mentality of less talk and more action.’ Kestens read about the 24MONTHS project at the end of November and responded straight away. ‘I wanted to work in a smaller, more dynamic environment, where there is room for creativity and responsibility.’ For her 24Months is ‘the ideal next step.’ ‘I am learning a lot about the business, am coached and trained by entrepreneurs and am increasing my experience and expanding my toolbox so I will be able to set up my own business in the future.’ Referring to her position as

Column Jungle

Sabrina Kestens is investigating the potential growth market of offshore containers for Peter Pesselse’s company

entrepreneur within an organization she says, ‘At CARU I am an intrapreneur!’

Pitch The matchmaker between trainees and businesses is the 24MONTHS organization. In this case it selected seven candidates to pitch to the company. They were informed about CARU’s assignment 24 hours beforehand. In the pitch the seven presented

‘There is already a return on Investment with the trainees’ themselves and how they wanted to tackle the assignment. ‘This gave us a good idea of the different talents,’ says Pesselse. ‘At the end of the afternoon we could choose which candidate we wanted to join forces with. It soon became clear to us that we actually wanted two candidates. CARU was set up in 1980 as a two-man band; we find working in pairs suits our culture and the advantage is that the two talents can challenge and complement each other. Sabrina and Allard [Langenhuijsen, the other trainee, ed.] work more or less independently on the assignment.’

Armed with facts The trainees report to the container company management every fortnight. They work closely with a colleague whose focus is the offshore market. Kestens says, ‘Our main focus at the moment is documenting this. We are considering the opportunities, threats and requirements in this relatively new market.’ The market is interesting for CARU because the margins are higher, says Pesselse. ‘The often rough conditions at sea make it necessary to use stronger containers, and an offshore container must also meet higher safety requirements.’ The container company has grown rapidly in recent years, but ‘we mainly used our intuition in important business decisions. By taking on Sabrina and Allard we can now be armed with the facts about the potential growth market of offshore containers. After two months I can already say that there has been a return on investment with these two talents.’ Author Eveline van de Lagemaat studied Social History at the EUR, specializing in communication and information.

May 1967. The logarithmic number system and German irregular verbs. Once again you sat in your room. It was one of those Sunday afternoons you just had to endure: your last chance to prepare for a test. There you sat at your new desk, a pile of study books in front of your nose and an agonizing mathematical assignment that proved impossible to solve. Prove e = 2.71828 as a natural base. You thumbed indifferently through an old German dictionary, wanted everything and nothing, and made curvaceous splodges with your fountain pen on an empty notepad. Homework. For a moment you wondered what the meaning of it all was. You were only just fifteen. Too young for a moped, too old for a kite and too soon for questions about the meaning of life. Even dwarfs started small. The richly associative title of a documentary (1970) by film director Werner Herzog. Little people, dwarves, are set free on an uninhabited island and organize themselves into chaos. The law of the jungle reigns supreme. The pecking order. That is now my place of work, among writers in a world dominated by AKO literature prizes and media-savvy penpushers. But it’s still a jungle full of dwarves, all of whom started small and stayed small. December 2011. As a friend of astronaut André Kuipers I travelled with him to Kazakhstan, standing close to the roaring flames of the Soyuz spacecraft in Baikonur. We now e-mail and he phones me every now and then. ‘When I gaze from here into the pitchblack universe, I really feel how fragile and relative it all is.’ May 1967. ‘Have you started on your prime numbers yet, son?’ your father asked triumphantly. Prime numbers. Those too. You didn’t reply. The next day your mathematics test was a flop. You forgot the German irregular verbs during that turbulent summer with Elise by the Bodensee in Konstanz. June 1970. You looked out the window, sat at your desk and thought back to May 1967. Irregular German verbs and a logarithmic number system. You felt a slight longing for that familiar confusion. Now you were allowed to go to the EUR, but you sat hunched over a map of the world and you didn’t want to go to France but to West Samoa. You were only just eighteen. Too old for a moped, too young for resignation but just too late for Sartre. Henk Weltevreden (1951) studied Philosophy at the EUR. He writes travel stories, novels and columns and makes TV programmes for the VPRO, NTR, RVU and Humanistische Omroep TV companies. His travel novel about North Korea De Stralende Ster van Paekdu (The Shining Star of Paekdu) will soon be published.

erasmusalumni. magazine 19

Focus on research

DISCOUNT How do you get people to exercise regularly? In order to get a better idea of this these three researchers from different departments of the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) did a field study at a gym. They randomly selected three groups of gym visitors. Group one received a discount of € 15 per quarter if they visited the gym once a week for 11 of the 13 weeks, and € 25 if they visited twice in those weeks. Group two received a € 15 discount, regardless of the number of visits. Group three was the control group.

LONG TERM Social psychologists generally study situations, explains Willem Verbeke, Professor of Sales and Account Management (Department of Business Economics). ‘We have now looked at a long-term effect, as economists do.’ The researchers have different theories as to why such an effect occurs. Maybe the gym visitor makes friends at the gym, who encourage him to visit the gym, or maybe he becomes addicted to the good feeling that doing sport gives him? Maybe his health improves and he can consequently make better decisions?

CAMPAIGN The researchers believe the results will be of interest to, for example, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, other parts of the public sector or insurance companies. For gyms the study does not appear to result in hard cash: people did not extend their subscriptions more often.

erasmusalumni. magazine

IT SEEMS TO WORK How do you get people to exercise regularly? Like this, it seems. From the first provisional results it appears that the group that received a discount if they came each week visited the gym more often, behavioural economist Kirsten Rohde (Department of Applied Economics) explains. What is more, ‘Even after the discounted period they continued to return. They seem to have developed a habit.’

STOPPING SMOKING Learning a good habit with the help of an incentive can also be applied to other areas of course: taking your medicine every day, stopping smoking, losing weight. Studies have already been done of a number of such situations. But more research is needed if we are to understand how the mechanism works.

PERFORMANCE INCENTIVES Robert Dur, Professor of Economics of Incentives and Performance (Department of Economics), has done a lot of research into performance incentives in businesses. The gym study is not fully comparable with this. The incentive is much more limited: it is not your salary we are talking about but a discount of € 15. And it is in a very different environment. But that in particular makes the study interesting. The incentive is weak and temporary but the effect appears to be strong and for the long term.

Text Mieke Fiers Photo Levien Willemse The photo was taken in the Achmea Health Center Rotterdam (the study did not take place at this gym)

erasmusalumni. magazine

Science news

Crisis interpreted

‘My mother taught me…’

The continuing economic crisis and one round of cuts after another require explanation, interpretation and a reaction from experts. The media have been beating down the door to Rotterdam economists for this. See also www.economieopinie.nl

Why are some children better at sharing and cooperating than others? This is what Canadian biologist Viara Mileva-Seitz is going to study. Her research falls within the scope of the research programme of the new department of Education and Child Studies of Erasmus University. In a two-year study MilevaSeitz will look at whether some children are better at cooperating and sharing because they are better at observing social signals, have genetic baggage that is favourable to social

200 million less for research In the coming years the government is set to make cuts to academic research of € 200 million annually, according to calculations by the Rathenau Institute. Spending will decrease from € 5.9 to 5.7 billion. The amount of direct government spending on academic research will have decreased to € 4.5 billion in 2016.

behaviour or have been brought up that way.

Alzheimer’s

The number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is increasing at an alarming rate. The Alzheimer’s Foundation predicts it will have doubled by the year 2040. In order to improve treatment and research, Erasmus MC and the Havenziekenhuis hospital have set up an Alzheimer’s Centre for the South-West Netherlands. See also www.erasmusmc.nl/ Alzheimercentrum

22 erasmusalumni. magazine

Environmental law Environmental law still feels somewhat as though it is imposed from above, whilst the public and businesses bear their own responsibility for sustainable behaviour. In his EUR dissertation for which he was recently awarded a PhD, Harm Borgers suggests an alternative approach, which actually makes a claim on this individual responsibility. This would also bring environmental law closer to people’s experience.

Dangerous ﬂu virus causes debate In an extremely secure lab at the Erasmus MC, Virologist Ron Fouchier developed a bird ﬂu virus that can be transmitted via coughs and sneezes. Sharing the knowledge about this caused a global discussion about the use of such research and whether sensitive knowledge should be shared, and if so with whom. Ron Fouchier’s team was able to mutate the current bird flu virus in a few steps to make it easier to transmit from human to human. The virus would cause the biggest pandemic in history with millions of deaths as a result. Fouchier sent his findings to the journal Science, which submitted them to the American National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity NSABB. This strongly advised not to publish. The danger was that the knowledge could be used as a weapon in the wrong hands. Fouchier believes it is actually dangerous not to proceed with this kind of research. Publication and further research can mean that a mutation in this wrong

direction can be recognized and a possible pandemic avoided. After a special session the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to allow publication, and the NSABB supported the decision. However, the Dutch government had not yet issued a permit to export this sensitive knowledge. In order to make a proper assessment of the situation, it held an international conference at the end of April about security and the bird flu virus research. Fouchier was one of the speakers. Outgoing State Secretary Bleker has finally decided to grant an export permit for the research, which means that it can now be published.

Avoiding fraud Students and researchers must develop more of a sense of what constitutes academic misconduct. In order to achieve this, the Association of Universities, of which Erasmus University is a member, have drawn up a Dutch Code of Conduct for Academic Practice. Students must receive training in academic integrity and from now on researchers must explicitly vow to stick to the code. Dutch academia was startled this year by a number of fraud cases. It began with the large-scale fraud by Professor Diederik Stapel of Tilburg University. There has also been a case at Erasmus University in which academic integrity was violated. The academic in question, Associate Professor Don Poldermans of the Erasmus MC, was dismissed. More information on www.vsnu.nl

‘Government negligent with asbestos regulations’ The government was negligent about taking satisfactory measures to limit the use of asbestos. This is what legal expert Bob Ruers, member of the Senate for the SP Party, claims in his dissertation, for which he recently received a PhD from the EUR. The government should therefore offer its excuses to the victims, says Ruers. More than ten thousand people have already died from inhaling asbestos fibres. In the coming years the same number again will probably die. Prior to the full asbestos ban, in 1993, there was conflict between the industry, government, unions and victims. Significant economic interests were at stake here, Ruers emphasizes. See too www.comiteasbestslachtoffers.nl

erasmusalumni. magazine

In the news in ‘97-’98

Martijn Koenen was a

Floortje (r) en Brechje van

candidate for the D66 Party

Eijck won bronze at the World

in the municipal council elec-

Rowing Championships

tions (photo: RvdH)

(photo: RvdH)

EA takes a trip back in time and wonders how the students who made the news in the academic year of 1997-1998 are doing now. text and photos from now Sanne van der Most

Sanne van der Most studied Private Law at the EUR. She graduated in 1999.

24 erasmusalumni. magazine

Martijn Koenen

Floortje (l) en Brechje van Eijck

40, Public Administration

both 36, Medicine

What were you up to in 97-98? ‘Politics was not really my calling but I was interested in political and social developments. I was one of the founders of the Youth Board and a member of the Young Democrats and D66. When they asked me if I wanted to be a candidate for the municipal council elections it sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, we did not win enough seats.’

What were you up to in 97-98? ‘We qualified for the World Rowing Championships in France. In the end we won bronze there. A fantastic end to the season. We rowed for one more year and then stopped because we were both doing residencies.’

What do you do now? ‘I graduated in 2000 and now work as a customs and excise inspector in Rotterdam.’

What are you doing now? Floortje: ‘I have been a trauma surgeon since October 2009. I was awarded my PhD by Erasmus MC two years ago. I now work in the Slingeland Hospital in Doetinchem.’ Brechje: ‘I am now a gastroenterologist at the Kennemer Gasthuis Hospital in Haarlem.’

How do you look back at that time? ‘It was a valuable and particularly fun period, but I gave up my political ambitions. I got fed up fairly quickly with the culture in local politics: people who take themselves way too seriously and whose main worry is themselves rather than society.’

What do you remember most? ‘The medals at the World Championship were the highlight for us of course. A fantastic time that we would repeat at the drop of a hat. The intensive training programmes taught us how to plan and switch between our studies – and now work – and our private lives.’

Femke Lagerveld

Karel van der Flier

(2nd from right) was on the

organized big student

Eureka Week Committee

parties

(photo: private collection)

(photo: LW)

Femke Lagerveld

Karel van der Flier

37, Dutch Law

37, Business Economics

What were you up to in 97-98? ‘As a member of the Eureka Week Committee I was responsible for the design and content of all the printed material and for the cabaret evening, where a then relatively unknown Thomas van Luyn performed. I also organized a hypnotist, called Mr Black, and the lunch concert on the first day.’

What were you up to in 97-98? ‘I ran an events company together with two fellow yeargroup members of my student association: Young Promotions. We organized big parties for student associations and for the EUR. Real parties to blow you away with famous bands like Kane and Bløf.’

What do you do now? ‘I work in the House of Representatives as a policy officer for Security and Justice for the VVD Party and am also doing a Master’s degree in Political Science.’

What do you do now? ‘For years I bought up businesses that were performing badly, did them up and sold them on. As that was going so well and I am an entrepreneur at heart, I didn’t finish my degree. I have never regretted it. I now work with my wife Mariska, who is an interior designer. She is very creative but somewhat less business-minded. I therefore do that part now.’

Fond memories? ‘It was completely different from “normal” study. As a committee we had to organize all sorts of things and got to go all sorts of places. We ate together once a week. It was great fun. What did I learn? How to work together in a group. And that you have to accept that people have their own way of doing things.’

Anything else you learnt? ‘I learnt how important it is to be able to trust whoever you work with with your life. And that it is better to make a bad decision than no decision at all.’

erasmusalumni. magazine 25

Erasmus Universiteit and the new campus

Work on the Woudestein Campus Phase 1 Completion date: July 2013 Work: construction of underground car park, Plaza, park, student accommodation (U-Building), Student Pavilion and renovation of C-Building. Cost: 92 million

Phase 2 Period: September 2013–2028 Work: renovation of H-Building, renovation of L-Building, including the Mensa, which will be transformed into a food court, construction of a hotel, new sports hall. Cost: More than €300 million (set aside)

Commotion at the Plaza On Campus Woudestein they are busy demolishing, constructing and renovating. Alumnus Dennis Mijnheer returns to the university for EA to find out what the plans entail. text Dennis Mijnheer illustrations Lobke van Aar

In September 2003 I passed Petri’s Eggs on the Woudestein Campus for the last time, on my way to collect my Business Administration degree. Now I am back and armed with a notepad. At the request of EA I am writing an article about the renovation and new developments on the campus. And a lot has changed.

Note 1: The grassy slope or sunbathing area in front of the big Mensa has completely disappeared. Here on this spot every student or former student has sat on the grass at some point to enjoy a few rays. Now there is a hole many meters deep in which construction workers walk back and forth

26 erasmusalumni. magazine

between rusty sheetpile walls. They are working on an underground car park with a thousand parking spaces, Huub Juurlink tells me. He is an architect at Juurlink [+] Geluk and the designer of the master plan for the new campus. ‘The car park is one of the most difficult jobs,’ he says, pointing to the tension braces in the wall of the hole. ‘These are to prevent the building subsiding into the car park.’ This is not an unthinkable scenario: exactly that started to happen in 2007 with the Erasmus MC-Sophia when they built a multistorey car park next door. On top of the underground car park they will build a new Plaza. This ‘student boulevard’ should form the heart of the new campus. The Plaza will run as a straight line through the campus, from

groups of students from other faculties that you never met. In future everyone who has to be on the campus – be it for a lecture, a symposium or otherwise – will enter at the Plaza. From the car park you will also immediately enter the ‘heart of the campus’, as Juurlink calls it. ‘A student heart full of commotion, cyclists, benches and a lot of green. We have made the car park construction very strong so that we can plant big trees, such as sycamores, on top. I am looking forward to an Indian Summer with a busy Plaza in all the colours of autumn.’ Bart Straatman, member of the Executive Board of the University, has the image imprinted in his mind. He gained his inspiration from universities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Edinburgh. ‘We now have the opportunity to update all that is outdated on the campus. For the long term we have set aside € 400 million so that we will once again count among the top universities.’ The expansion is taking place in phases. ‘We are going to keep checking if we can still afford it. Otherwise we will first have to save.’

‘In the pavilion there will be secondhand furniture, which is both sustainable and welcoming’ the Burgemeester Oudlaan all the way to the Kralingse Zoom/Brainpark. ‘The Plaza will be as long and wide as the Willemsbrug, with restaurants on both sides, a hotel, student accommodation, a new gym and lots of benches,’ says Juurlink. The idea is that the Plaza will become a real meeting place bringing together the whole campus. That used to be very different: you cycled to the building where your lecture was and had little to do with the rest of the campus. There were whole

Note 2: Café In de Smitse has disappeared from the F/G Building. Nine years ago we might not have had a Plaza but we did have Café In de Smitse. It was the only semi-lively place at Woudestein with entertainment in the form of cheap beer, music and fellow students, even the braggarts. A few enquiries tell me that In de Smitse has moved to the T-Building, which opened in 2005. From summer next year this student café will have serious competition from the Student Pavilion. The new building measuring 32x32 metres will be on the spot where at the moment twenty foundation piles stand. A grand café is coming with seating for 140, a terrace outside, meeting rooms, study areas and a multi-functional hall with seating for 200 or standing room for 400. ‘The aim is that

erasmusalumni. magazine 27

Erasmus Universiteit en de nieuwe campus

the pavilion becomes the lively centre of the campus,’ says Dick Pakkert, who has been taken on as its manager. He is also manager of the Rotterdam café-restaurant De Unie and the Rotown concert hall. It will be no trouble to bring some

‘Over the course of time the central hall filled up with a coffee corner and all sorts of cubicles.’

life to the pavilion in the daytime, he believes. ‘The evening will be the biggest challenge. Students have lots of other options, such as the Oude Haven and the Oostzeedijk, and once they are in town or at home it is a long way back to the campus.’ Pakkert therefore wants to bring the ‘city’ to the campus: with its own (mainly organic) food, films, theatre and concerts.

Note 3: The F/G-Building has a snack cart selling döner kebabs right outside. I fear that the design of the snack cart will be no match for the new Student Pavilion. Stefan Prins, architect at Powerhouse Company, designed the pavilion, with lots of sheet glass to keep it as transparent as possible. ‘But there are going to be big blinds to keep out the sun. In the summer we will then need to use less energy to cool it, and by shutting the blinds a certain sense of intimacy will develop,’ says Prins. He shows me an artist’s impression of a winter scene: a frozen pond, students skating and an – he’s right – intimatelooking pavilion. Between the pavilion and the pond there will be steps like a sort of paddy field. ‘A good place to work quietly by the water in the summer,’ says Prins. The future pond is not just for aesthetic purposes: the water will also be used to cool the pavilion. There are more such sustainable ideas in the design. Prins says, ‘The wish of the University was to design a building that is both lively and sustainable. This was an interesting challenge because the livelier you want it to be the less sustainable it often becomes.

28 erasmusalumni. magazine

And vice versa.’ The pavilion’s interior is under discussion at the moment. Pakkert says, ‘I don’t want everything white and austere because the students then feel they aren’t allowed to touch anything. We are therefore opting for second-hand furniture: that is both sustainable and welcoming.’

Note 4: A bright-red (!) prefab-like building has risen in front of the M-Building. In my time the campus was dominated by the colour grey. In the new plans there is luckily more colour. But this brightred building with coloured stripes beats them all. It proves to be called the ‘V-Building’ and contains such things as the Erasmus Shop, a hairdresser and the seven lecture theatres. Different faculties are being temporarily housed there due to the renovation of the monumental C-Building. This building has been completely stripped and is not accessible; the restoration work is now in full flow. All technical installations such as the air-conditioning systems, electricity and heating are being updated, says Sharif Ben Chamach, who studied Law until 2006 at the EUR and now works for Breijer Bouw en Installatie, the main contractor on the renovation project. ‘Over the course of time the central hall filled with a coffee corner and all sorts of cubicles,’ says Ben Chamach. ‘It was the university’s wish to return the building, which dates from 1964, back to its original state.’

Note 5: Petri’s Eggs are nowhere to be seen. They used to be by the Burgemeester Oudlaan, at exactly the same spot where the entrance to the new plaza will be. Therefore, ‘something’ had to be done about Petri’s Eggs. ‘We looked into whether it would be possible to keep the eggs, but from a technical point of view they were on their last legs,’ says Kees Lansbergen, director of the Erasmus Services Department (EFB). It was not possible to restore them. They would have fallen apart during transport. ‘We did consider reproductions, but Petri’s heirs were against that.’ They said goodbye to this artwork with a ceremony and an exhibition last year. ‘With pain in our hearts,’ says Lansbergen. ‘I studied here myself at the end of the 1970s and they were a feature of Erasmus University.’ Their disappearance is almost symbolic: the round forms of the artwork were a silent protest by Petri against the cold rectangular shapes of the grey concrete university buildings in the 1960s. However, the trend seems to have been broken: the ‘new’ Woudestein is gaining colour, glass and a lot of green.

New Hoboken Building Construction work is not just going on at Woudestein but it is also all systems go at the Erasmus MC (Hoboken). In the autumn of 2009 the first phase of the large-scale refurbishment began with a construction budget of € 449 million. Work is currently underway on the East section, the tower of which will have thirty floors and, at a height of 120 metres, will be a good bit higher than the current white tower. The East section (at Sophia) is expected to open in 2013. The completion

www.eur.nl/campus/ontwikkeling_campus

date for the whole new building is 2017.

Dennis Mijnheer studied Business Administration at the EUR. He graduated in 2003 specializing in Marketing Management.

Nice animation at: www. erasmusmc.nl/nieuwbouw

erasmusalumni. magazine 29

Op deze pagina vindt u een kleine selectie van een prachtig aanbod aan relatiegeschenken van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Op www.eur.nl/faciliteiten/relatiegeschenken/assortiment/ vindt u ons volledige assortiment. Bestellingen kunnen geplaatst worden door een e-mail te sturen naar info@smc.eur.nl.

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Why Rotterdam

The Kralingse Bos is the Central Park of Rotterdam Herman Vaanholt’s love for Rotterdam grew slowly. The entrepreneur now feels more than at home there. The Kralingse Bos is the Central Park of Rotterdam Name: Herman Vaanholt (50)

text Eveline van de Lagemaat photo Levien Willemse

Degrees: Bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA) Management (Nyenrode), Business Administration (MSc) EUR Graduated: 1986 Proud of: De Tuin van de Vier Windstreken Restaurant

‘I was born and bred in Lonneker, a small village close to Enschede. After secondary school I went to Nyenrode Business University. I then studied Business Administration for two-and-a-half years (MSc) at the EUR. When I came to Rotterdam I did not feel anything for the city. My love for it grew

really slowly but the city is now my anchor. This is partly due to such great events as the Film Festival in which I immerse myself each year.’ Entrepreneur Herman Vaanholt is the organizer of the Rotterdam City Race (previously the Bavaria City Race). He is not afraid of noise, but he does like to seek out a bit of nature too. ‘The Kralingse Bos is the Central Park of Rotterdam. You can find peace and beautiful nature at a stone’s throw from the city noise.’ His favourite place is the terrace of Restaurant De Tuin van de Vier Windstreken, by the Kralingse Plas. It is no coincidence that he has been co-owner of ‘De Tuin’ for fourteen years. ‘De Tuin is so great because everyone is welcome. People come here especially for our food and drink, but they sometimes also pop in after having been out in the woods. In the spring you sometimes get riders on horses on the terrace just like in the old days; in the summer visitors arrive on foot and in the winter there are skaters. The huge terrace by the water with the long jetty is a real hotspot in the summer, but if you come at other times, you can enjoy the peace and quiet. In the spring I sometimes sit here really early in the morning to watch the sunrise. It is so beautiful here then!’ Eveline van de Lagemaat studied Social History at the EUR, specializing in communication and information.

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Alumni affairs

Erasmus University Rotterdam Alumni & Corporate Relations Office Room A1-51 Burgemeester Oudlaan 50 3062 PA Rotterdam Telephone: 010-4081110 Fax: 010-4089075 Alumni@smc.eur.nl www.eur.nl/alumni Alumni Advisory Board Rinkse Brand, Marcella Breedeveld, Michel Dutree, Jan Hendrik Egberts, Bon de Jonge van Ellemeet, Sietze Hepkema, Frans van Houten, Ila Kasem, Guus Lubsen, Lilianne Ploumen, Derek Roos, Dominic Schrijer, Dick Verbeek, Frans Weisglas, Henk Weltevreden, Pieter Zevenbergen (chair) UL library card for alumni Alumni of the EUR can apply

Mandeville Lecture At the invitation of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Rotterdam business community united in Club Rotterdam and the EUR Trustfund Association, the former president of the Central European Bank, Jean Claude Trichet, will give the Mandeville Lecture on 6 June 2012. This lecture is considered an ‘honorary social doctorate’. Former laureates include Wim Duisenberg (1998), Bernard Kouchner (2002) and Joop van den Ende (2011). 6 June 2012, Aula, EUR. Info. at www.mandevillelezing.nl

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for an UL library card at a reduced rate: € 15 instead of € 30. Request your UL library card by sending an e-mail to alumni@smr.eur.nl stating your surname, initials, address, date of birth and former student number. Opening of the Academic Year 2012/2013 You are all invited to the traditional opening of the Academic Year 2012–2013. 3 September 2010, Aula, EUR Social media The EUR communicates via Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Register now.

Erasmus Alumni Database Your alma mater, the EUR, will celebrate its centenary in 2013. We want to involve as many alumni as possible in the celebrations. If you are unsure whether we have your recent personal data please contact us (alumni@smc.eur.nl, 0104081110). You can also request a new login so you can manage your own database entry and not miss a single announcement. World map of EUR alumni EUR alumni jet off across the whole world. In order to get a picture of this the EUR has developed a web application. From www.eur.nl/alumni you can access a special version of the well-known Google Maps, which shows all alumni from the Erasmus Alumni Database right to city level. Naturally this is anonymous.

www. erasmusalumnivereniging.nl

EUR Language & Training Centre As an alumnus of the Erasmus University Rotterdam you receive a discount on the Chinese, English, Italian, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish language courses at the EUR Language & Training Centre. Evening courses: 10 lessons, starting three times a year – January, April and October – 5.308 p.m. (higher levels of Spanish until 9 p.m.). Intensive courses: in three weeks you learn what you would otherwise need two evening courses for (20 weeks altogether). Dutch (January and August), English (August), Spanish (August) English for special purposes: Business Writing Skills, Academic Writing and a Cambridge Course in which you can prepare for the prestigious Cambridge Certificate. Unable to find what you are looking for? The Language & Training Centre also provides tailor-made solutions. ltc@eur.nl, 010-4081995, www.eur.nl/ttc/alumni/ General Erasmus Alumni Association Alexandra Staab PO Box 4382, 3006 AJ Rotterdam Telephone 010-4149407 eav@ erasmusalumnivereniging.nl

Sport at a discount EUR wishes to emphasize and strengthen the ties with its alumni. Alumni can therefore take part in sporting activities at Erasmus Sport even after they have graduated. Furthermore, EAV members can participate in sporting activities there at student prices. For information on the sports on offer and fees see www.erasmussport.nl. General Studies/ Erasmus Culture Fedde van der Spoel Room E1-47 010 408 2693 spoel@oos.eur.nl http://www.eur.nl/sgec Party at Smitse Just before the summer Erasmus Culture and Café In de Smitse are holding an open-air festival. The most promising artistes of the last season will perform one more time. Start the summer at this mini-festival at the EUR. 1 June 2012, 5 p.m., Woudestein Campus

Erasmus Studio A new initiative by General Studies, Erasmus Culture and Erasmus Podium. The lighthearted ‘Studio Erasmus’ talkshow once a

month. Guests pop in to discuss academia, politics, culture, media and the EUR. Fourth edition on 24 May 2012, 8-9.15 p.m., doors open at 7.30 p.m., De Unie (Mauritsweg 34-35), free. Reservation recommended via reserveren@deunie.nu

Erasmus School of Economics ESL Alumni Affairs Charles Hermans hermans@ese.eur.nl Room H7-19 Telephone 010-4081803 www.esealumni.nl The ESE organizes a limited number of annual events, such as the ESE Alumni Day in the spring on the opening day of the EFR Business Week and the Autumn Day. ESE maintains ties with alumni The ESE attaches great importance to strong ties between the alumni themselves and between the alumni and their faculty. This means graduates can learn from the practical experiences of others and stay informed of the developments within their field. All new alumni of the ESE receive a two-year trial membership of the EAV (General Erasmus Alumni Association) as a gift from their faculty. The Erasmus Education Fund The aim of the fund is to support initiatives that enable talented underprivileged young people to go through

further education and thus become the leaders of future generations. More information at www. erasmuseducationfund.nl Your contribution is much appreciated. You can transfer it to account number 11.69.09.436 in the name of the Erasmus Trustfonds in Rotterdam stating ‘Erasmus Education Fund’. Dean Philip Hans Franses receives honorary doctorate Professor Philip Hans Franses was awarded an honorary doctorate in econometrics by Chiang Mai University, one of the biggest universities in Thailand. Franses is the first Dutch person to receive an honorary doctorate from a Thai university. He was awarded the honorary doctorate by the crown prince of Thailand Maha Chakri. ‘It was a memorable and moving experience,’ said Franses. Vici Grant for Ingolf Dittmann Ingolf Dittmann, Professor of Finance, has received a Vici Grant of € 1.5 million from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). His proposal received the highest assessment of A+ no fewer than three times from the international judges. The Vici Grant is one of the largest individual scientific grants in the Netherlands. The Vici Grant will provide Dittman with the opportunity to set up his own research group. Professors appointed Dr Onno Steenbeek has been appointed Professor of Profes-

sional Practice in Risk Management of Pension Funds on behalf of the EUR Trustfund Association. Prof. Enrico Pennings has been appointed Professor of Applied Industrial Organization. Prof. Victor Maas has been appointed Endowed Professor of Management Accounting on behalf of the EUR Trustfund Association. His work will include conducting management accounting research. Correction An erroneous link was made in the advertisement for the Erasmus Education Fund in the previous edition of Erasmus Alumni Magazine between the photo of ESE graduates and the text about talented, underprivileged students. The photo and the text are unrelated. EFR Alumni Association EFR Secretary Alumni Association 2011/2012 Alissa Daurer Room H16-30 Secretaris@efralumni.nl www.efr.nl/alumni

ESE-Ere Award The Erasmus School of Economics has conferred the first ESE-Ere Award to Dean Philip Hans Franses. At the ceremony during which Justus Veenman, director of the Applied Economics capacity group, presented the award, Franses was praised for stimulating highquality teaching and research in the Faculty and successfully representing Faculty interests. His media appearances and frequent contributions to the website EconomieOpinie.nl are also valued. Furthermore, his work outside the Faculty, such as his teaching appointment at the University of Paramaribo and his membership of the KNAW, contributes to the Faculty’s reputation.

former board members attended.

EFR Alumni Dinner The annual Alumni Dinner of the EFR (Economics Faculty Association Rotterdam) was held in Amsterdam on Saturday 4 February. Despite problems due to snow, 110

Barbecue and football EFR Alumni activity for former board members and former active members (Erasmus Recruitment Days and Business Week Committee). During a barbecue at the Kralingse Plas the above are invited to cheer on the Dutch national team in their first match in the European Championships. An official invitation will follow. 9 June 2012 Café-Restaurant De Tuin

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Alumni affairs

Bachelor Honours Class Alumni Society Nicky Hoogveld Postvak H6-26 secretary@esehonours.nl www.esehonours.nl FSR Alumni Association (Financial Study Association Rotterdam) Jordy Streng / Joris Kil Room H14-06 Telephone 010-4081830 alumni@fsr.nu www.fsralumni.nl FSR Alumni Golf Tournament Annual golf tournament with the alumni members of the FSR at the end of the academic

year. 2 June 2012, 11 a.m. Delﬂand Golf Course FSR Alumni Yearbook The FSR Alumni Association published an annual yearbook for the first time last year. In order to make this complete, FSR Alumni can mail their personal details, current employer and position to alumni@fsr.nu. The second edition of the FSR Alumni Yearbook will appear in June.

Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) Alumni Affairs Lalita Rambhadjan Room M8-22 www.eur.nl/fsw/bsk/abeur LinkedIn group: Erasmus University Rotterdam Alumni ABEUR Twitter: @ABEUR_alumni, @EUR_BSK Psychology Ilona Boutestijn Room T13-48 alumni-psy@fsw.eur.nl www.psyweb.nl

Sociologist Van Doorn honoured with chair Jacques van Doorn was the founder of the Sociology programme at Rotterdam and one of the greatest Dutch sociologists since the Second World War. He died on 14 May 2008. To honour him the FSW has established the Prof. J.A.A. van Doorn Chair. The holder of the chair is appointed at the FSW for 0.2 FTE for a period of six months and receives a ‘Jacques van Doorn Fellow’ appointment at the NIAS. Professor of Public Administration Mark Bovens is the first to be appointed. He will hold this chair from 1 February to 30 June 2012. He will give the Van Doorn Lecture on 21 June 2012. (photo: Levien Willemse) 21 June 2012, 4 p.m., Aula, www.eur.nl/fsw/vandoorn

erasmusalumni. magazine

Sociology Dr Bram Peper Room M6-07 alumnisociologie@fsw.eur.nl www.eur.nl/fsw/soc/alumni/ Linkedin: Alumnivereniging Sociologie (EUR) New professors Prof. Justes Uitermark, endowed chair of ‘Society development’ established by the Dr Gradus Hendriks Foundation Prof. E.H.W. Korsten, Psychology, particularly Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

Prof. Markus Haverland, Public Administration, particularly Political Science. Inaugural lectures Prof. Harry Geerlings, Sustainable mobility 7 June 2012, 4 p.m., Aula Prof. Steven van de Walle, Comparative Public Administration 28 June 2012, 4 p.m., Aula Big prize for public management scholar Prof. Walter Kickert has received the Routledge Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Public Management Research for his services to public management studies in Europe. According to the jury his services include a leading role in determining the links between politics, public administration and management. Kickert received the prize during the annual conference of the International Research Society for Public Management on 13 April in Rome.

Erasmus School of Law (ESL) Alumni Affairs Munish Ramlal Room L5-026 Telephone 010-4082353 e-mail: ramlal@frg.eur.nl www.frg.eur.nl/alumni Anniversary book The history of the Erasmus School of Law is being recorded in an anniversary book by Prof. L.J.J. Rogier and Prof. L.C. Winkel. It should be completed in the ESL anniversary year 2013.

Dining in the car park In its anniversary year of 2013 ESL wants to organize an exclusive dinner for its alumni and contacts with a lecture by a renowned speaker. And a special location: the car park that is currently being built on Woudestein campus. The money raised by the dinner will go towards the ESL Talent Fund. ESLTalentFund With the establishment of the ESLTalentFund the Faculty wants to make it possible for extra activities and projects for talented students to continue to go ahead despite the cuts. As an alumni you can support your faculty with an annual or one-off donation to the ESLTalentFund.

Erasmus MC Erasmus MC Alumni Affairs Erasmus MC Alumni Association Laurence Walhout, management assistant Connie Meilof, alumni officer Communication Department, Room Gk-954 PO Box 2040 3000 CA Rotterdam Telephone 010-7044538 alumni@erasmusmc.nl www.erasmusmc.nl/alumni Alumni Lunch: In Praise of Medicine Annual lunch for alumni of Erasmus MC before the lecture ‘In Praise of Medicine’ with the theme: The biological clock. 5 October 2012, 12.30 p.m., Concert and Congress

Building De Doelen, Rotterdam www. lofdergeneeskunst.nl

Faculty of Philosophy (FW) Alumni Affairs Dr W.M.J. Ophelders Room H5-33 Telephone 010-4088993 ophelders@fwb.eur.nl ERA Faculty Association Room H4-15 Telephone 010-4088985 (Mo-Thu from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.) contact@erarotterdam.nl http://erarotterdam.nl/

Monthly ERA reception Every third Thursday of the month, an ERA reception is held with fun, philosophical discussions and beer aplenty! A good opportunity for a good chat with your successors. From 8 p.m. Café Boudewijn, Nieuwe Binneweg 53 a-b, Rotterdam, www.bbcboudewijn.nl

Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication ESHCC Alumni Matters Sabai Doodkorte Room L3-30

010-4082874 doodkorte@eshcc.eur.nl www.eshcc.eur.nl/alumni

Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. 16 November 2012, 4 p.m., Aula, Woudestein Campus

Farewell lecture Prof. Marlite Halbertsma Her farewell lecture is called ‘Arrogant dogs. On cultural heritage and other matters.’ 8 June 2012, 4 p.m. Laurenskerk, Grote Kerkplein 27, Rotterdam www.eshcc.eur.nl/ uitnodigingafscheidsrede Farewell lecture Prof. Ton Bevers On 16 November 2012, Prof. Ton Bevers will be leaving the

Korting voor alumni www.erasmusacademie.nl

www.erasmusacademie.nl Ook al bent u afgestudeerd, uitgeleerd raakt u nooit. Op een groot aantal opleidingen ontvangen alumni van de EUR daarom 10% korting op onze cursusprijs. In september starten: • Transitiemanagement • Appreciative Inquiry • Energy Finance • Contractonderhandelingen® • IDM: Grondslagen, Informatie en Samenleving Kijk voor ons volledige aanbod op www.erasmusacademie.nl of neem contact op met Miranda Smit, opleidingsadviseur van Erasmus Academie tel. 010-408 1796 of mail naar smit@erasmusacademie.nl

Alumni affairs

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Alumni Officer Jennifer Ritfeld Kamer T6-30 Telefoon 010-4082698 www.rsm.nl/alumni alumni@rsm.nl RSM Alumni Day Participate in sessions in which top RSM researchers share their latest knowledge. The concluding session is a discussion between RSM Distinguished Alumni and researchers about social enterprise. 25 May 2012, 9.30 a.m. – 8 p.m., Woudestein Campus J-Building http://www.rsm.nl/alumni/ events/alumniday/

familiar with the experiences of senior executives of leading international businesses. During a celebratory reception you will be able to have a chat and network. 5 October 2012, 2–6.30 p.m. Beurs, World Trade Center, Rotterdam http://www.rsm.nl/alumni/ events/leadership-summit/ New BSc/MSc Alumni Relations Manager Since 7 February 2012, Jennifer Ritfeld has held the post of BSc/MSc Alumni Relations Manager at the Corporate and Alumni Relations Office of the RSM. Prior to this she worked as Communications Advisor/ Commercial Specialist at the American Embassy in The Hague. Jennifer (1976) is responsible for policy development, transforming this into activities that will tie BSc/MSc alumni more closely to the RSM.

International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)

Erasmus Energy Forum Presentations, debates and discussions by leading decision-makers at both academic and commercial levels – the energy networks for the future. 15 June 2012, 8.30 a.m. – 3 p.m., Drijvend Paviljoen Rotterdam http://www.erim.eur.nl/ERIM/ Research/Centres/Energy/ Erasmus_Energy_Forum RSM Leadership Summit This event provides you with the opportunity to become

erasmusalumni. magazine

ISS Alumni Matters Sandra Nijhof Kortenaerkade 12 2518 AX Den Haag Telephone 070-4260414 E-mail alumni@iss.nl www.iss.nl/alumni

2012 Anniversary Please make a note of 12 October 2012 in your diary. ISS will celebrate its 60th anniversary during the period September 2012–July 2013. Most anniversary activities are scheduled in the week of 8–12

October 2012. On Friday 12 October special alumni activities will take place.

rhinitis using a retrospective pharmacy database from the Netherlands.

iBMG iBMG Alumni Matters Ernst Bakker alumni@bmg.eur.nl www.bmg.eur.nl/alumni CPB Prize Rudy Douven and Erik Schut have received the CPB Prize. This prize from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) is awarded for the best academic article published in 2011. They received it for the article Pricing behaviour of non-profit insurers in a weakly competitive social health insurance market.

Veni Grant Ellen van de Poel has received a Veni Grant of € 250,000. This grant will enable her to start a line of research in the field of inequalities in health care in third-world countries. Award for Menno Kiel Menno Kiel received the Best New Investigator Podium Presentation Award for his presentation during the annual congress of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). The title of the presentation was: assessing the compliance & persistence of allergen immunotherapy in allergic

Erasmus MC Medal On her departure as director of operational management of the iBMG, Marieke Veenstra was awarded the Erasmus MC Medal by Huib Pols, Dean and member of the Erasmus MC Executive Board. Veenstra received the medal for her services to the Erasmus MC and the iBMG and therefore to society in a way that conforms with Desiderius Erasmus: selfwilled and in solidarity with one’s fellow man.

Column Multiple choice

Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies IHS Alumni International Ore Fika, Sarah Steendam Room: T14-33 Telephone: 010-4089874 www.ihs.nl/alumni

IHS Alumni International Award Urban actors at the local level both professional and nonprofessional, are largely neglected by politicians and the media. Yet they are the main catalysts behind the processes shaping cities as engines of economic growth and development. IHS-AI wants to recognise and honour these key actors in urban management and development. The award will be presented to the winner at the World Urban Forum, Naples, September 2012. Nominate your champions now through www.ihs.nl/alumni. IHS Refresher Courses 2012 In 2012 IHS will organize two refresher courses for IHS NFP alumni with funding from Nuffic. In Uganda the course will focus on Pro-Poor Public Private Partnerships and in the Philippines on Affordable Resilient Housing. IHS Alumni will receive an invitation to apply. Also please keep an eye on our website for updates and opening of the application procedure. www.ihs.nl

IHS Alumni International new board opening Are you interested in actively contributing to the creation of a global network of urban professionals? Act now. In June 2012 the current board of IHS Alumni International will make place for new board members. IHS Alumni will receive a call for application around June 2012.

Erasmus Institute for Financial Planning IFP Alumni Affairs Theo Hoogwout Room H 16-07 010-4081491 www.erasmusifp.nl

I hesitated. Again. It was my very first multiple-choice exam, for the Microeconomics course unit, and it was much, much more difficult than I had imagined, let alone hoped. I was, so to see, not the only one. We sat there in our hundreds in the Ahoy Hall (it was a propaedeutic course unit for the Econometrics programme, but a kandidaat course unit for the Business Economics programme) on that cold January day in 1979 and the grimaces on the faces of my fellow students spoke volumes. I hesitated between answer 9A and answer 9C. The exam consisted of 36 questions, and for each question you had a choice of three answers: two rivalling answers, A and B, and the answer C of ‘I do not know’. The right answer got you two points, the wrong answer (obviously) zero, and the toooften honest answer of C, ‘I do not know’, one point. In total you could gain a maximum of 72 points and therefore a mark of 10 for the exam, but 36 points or fewer got you a 1. Too many Cs and you therefore would not make it. It transpired that all multiple-choice exams within the programme used this model. Many years later I myself had to write exams and, believe me, creating a good multiple-choice exam is unbelievably difficult and time-consuming, particularly now that the ingenious model above is no longer in use. Do not ask me why not. I suspect that it was not educationally responsible. Nowadays, for each question you must provide four potential answers, and answers such as ‘none of the above are correct’ and ‘answers A and B are correct’, however attractive they might seem to the exam setter, are strictly forbidden. Anyway, matters such as the feasibility of the curriculum, assurance of learning, and examining are central to the many accreditations that we must undergo. Inconvenient but justified. We also hope to make great advances with the upcoming introduction of the N=N Programme (Nominaal is normaal; Official is Normal) to motivate students more and enable them to study within the official timeframe and thus avoid study delay fines for student and institution. Answer 9A or answer 9C? Of course I no longer know what I answered, but I do know that I did not pass the Microeconomics course unit in that January round. Maybe I opted for C just a bit too often. Steef van de Velde (1960) studied Econometrics from ’78 to ’85 at the EUR. He returned in 1997 and is now Dean of the Rotterdam School of Management and Professor of Operations Management & Technology.

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Family portrait

Ernst Kaars Sijpesteijn, 61, businessman Degree: Economics 19711979 Donne Kaars SijpesteijnGan, 57, lawyer Degree: Law 1973-1980

She came and cooked at his student house Their first date was at the anniversary party of a student association. After they graduated they got married. None of their four children chose the EUR text and photo Ronald van den Heerik

Donne was born and bred in Singapore. She was put in a boarding school by her father, who worked for a Dutch company. She has lived in the Netherlands ever since. Donne: ‘Singapore is still extremely important to me. My family lives there, but I also derive my sense of identity from it. It is

home. A country that is ruled authoritatively but fairly.’ Ernst: ‘What is also remarkable is that it is more or less free of corruption.’ Ernst: ‘RSC was holding an anniversary party and I did not yet have a lady, as we called them at the time. Donne accepted my invitation and we had a fantastic evening. We carried on dating but up to our wedding in 1980 we lived apart, which was the norm at that time.’ Donne: ‘We carried on with our student life as much as possible. We both did a lot of sport. I was also on the University Board for three years. We saw each other during what were known as the integration evenings at RVSV, where boys and

girls got together. We made joint use of study rooms at the Medical Faculty and I was more than welcome at Ernst’s student house due to my cooking skills.’ Ernst: ‘We have a special bond with Rotterdam, and can still be found regularly at alumni activities. “That is only possible in Rotterdam, the birthplace of economists, and they continue to build forth, Botlekplan and Europoort.” That is a fragment of a student song I can still hear myself singing. We have tried many a time to get our enthusiasm for Rotterdam and the EUR across to our children. They study and live all over the country but not in Rotterdam. That’s the way things go.’

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