January 2004 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

PROLOGUE
First and foremost let me wish you and your family a prosperous 2004
in good health.
Secondly I would like to share with you our Best Wishes for Prince Willem-Alexander and
Princess Maxima with their newborn Princess Catharina-Amalia. On behalf of the ADB
I have added our congratulations onto the website of the Royal Family.
Tom de Jong
After an exciting year with major events like the Iraq war and , closer to home, the SARS
outbreak, 2004 will hopefully be a year of more stability and sustained economic growth,
although Shell’s scenario type thinking has learned us that straight line thinking is not
always appropriate.
The last event in 2003 was a visit to the VOPAK installations on Jurong and Sebarok together
with an overview of the regional activities by John Paul Broeders, the reginal Director.
It was particularly good to see that a Dutch company in Bulk Storage and Logistic Services
has manged to secure top spot in the world in this field.
During the following dinner I mentioned that two boardmembers, Lieke Rijken and Rob Nijst,
will be leaving us and return to Holland for new assignments with their respective companies.
I would like to thank both of them for their long standing contributions to the ADB board.
They made significant contributions over a long period of time as Secretary and Financial
controller to the board of the ADB. I wish them succes in their new jobs in the Netherlands.
At the same time I would like to welcome Wim Samlal from VOPAK as the new controller to
the board. To fill a vacancy as well as replacing Lieke we have found Charlotte Ruegg and
Frans van de Bospoort willing to take a role in the board. Charlotte works at the National
University Hospital and Frans represents NIB Capital Bank in Singapore.
It is good to note that in such an agile environment like Singapore we have again been able
to find people willing to take on additional roles on top of their often busy work commitments.
ADB remains committed to provide an intersting programme of activities , which give our
member an opportunity to network outside their normal work environment.
Hope to see many of you at the forthcoming ADB events, starting with the new year’s
borrel on January 5th, 2004.
Tom de Jong
President
Jeroen Keunen Lieke Rijken Rob Nijst Nick van Holstein Ruud Lantinga
1
Vol.14 • No. 1 • January 2004