Paul de Krom Nominated as New Chairman of TNO Board of Management

The council of ministers nominated Paul de Krom for appointment by the Crown as chairman of the TNO Board of Management. He will take up the reins on March 1, 2015, succeeding Jan Willem Kelder, who is currently acting chairman.

“I am really pleased with the appointment of Mr. De Krom as chairman of the TNO Board of Management,” said Kees Linse, chairman of the Supervisory Board of TNO. “We have gained a highly experienced executive with substantial experience in both the private and public sector. Together with the other members of the Board of Management, he is ready to inject a new élan into the TNO mission: to connect knowledge and people to create innovations that sustainably strengthen the competitiveness of industry and wellbeing of society. His extensive experience with complex processes and organizations fits in perfectly at TNO, which operates as always at the public-private interface.”

De Krom is currently acting managing director of the government’s Rural Development Department (DLG) where he has special responsibility for the transfer of people and resources to the provincial and state authorities as of March 2015. De Krom also holds a number of non-executive positions, at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, HTM and the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), among others.

Formerly, he chaired the Board of the National Energy Savings Fund and was assigned the task by the Dutch Cabinet of solving the problem of a lack of engineering and technical workers in the country. As chairman of the “mobility and transport” table, he was closely involved in the emergence of the recent SER energy agreement. Between 2010 and 2012 he was secretary of state for Social Affairs and Employment in the first Rutte Cabinet and was acting minister in the last few months of that term. Prior to that he had been a member of Parliament for eight years. De Krom spent 12.5 years at Shell before making the switch to the public sector.

“I feel honored by this nomination,” said De Krom. “As an institute with an outstanding reputation, TNO plays a pivotal role in the world of applied research as well as a crucial role in creating innovations that help strengthen our business and industrial competitiveness. This, combined with the task of sustainably enhancing the well being of society, appeals to me enormously. I really look forward to getting started as soon as possible, working with the partners, customers and people of TNO.”