For the Grand opening of the Econometric Career Days 2022, we were proud to announce a line-up of three exceptional individuals, all with distinguished careers and backgrounds that are intriguing. We were excited to welcome Angelien Kemna, René Hooft Graafland, and Michel Scholte as key-note speakers.
They shared their professional experiences, memorable moments in their career, and the importance of Econometrics and Data Science in their organisations. After their individual presentations, there were panel discussions during which students had the opportunity to ask questions and hear the opinions of all the speakers. All remaining questions could be asked during the Q&A at the end.
The Grand Opening concluded with a drink at Erasmus Paviljoen, open to all attendees. Here, everyone had the chance to ask all questions students had to the present companies and talk to their employees.
The Grand Opening took place place on Tuesday 1 November at 15:00. The ceremony was in English and was open to all students and employees of the Erasmus University.
Angelien Kemna
Angelien Kemna (1957) currently has multiple positions in the supervisory boards of some very influential companies. She is Non Executive Director at Naspers Limited, Prosus and AXA Group. At NIBC Bank and FrieslandCampina she has a position in the supervisory board.
Angelien graduated with a Master in Econometrics and a PhD. in Finance from Erasmus University Rotterdam. After that, she began her career as Associate Professor in Finance at the Erasmus University from 1988 to 1991. In 1992, she joined Robeco and held various positions from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to July 2007, she worked for ING Investment Management, where she initially held the position of Global Chief Investment Officer and subsequently Chief Executive Officer for the European Region. In the period 2007-2011, Angelien was part-time Professor of Corporate Governance and Econometrics at the Erasmus University and also had various non-executive and advisory positions. In 2009, Angelien joined APG Group as a member of the Executive Board with the responsibility of Chief Investment Officer. From September 2014 to November 2017, Angelien was Chief Finance & Risk Officer of APG group.
With a lot of experience in both the academic and business related world of econometrics, Angelien will share her most important insights.
René Hooft Graafland
René Hooft Graafland (1955) has worked for 34 years at Heineken and he has been the Chief Financial Officer from 2005 to 2015. In 2015 he retired from Heineken but now he has various positions in the supervisory boards of Ahold Delhaize, FrieslandCampina and Lucas Bols. In addition, he is chairman of the boards of the Royal Theatre Carré Fund and the Stichting African Parks Foundation. René is also a member of the Monitoring Committee Corporate Governance Code.
René studied Business Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, followed by the post-graduate study for Chartered Accountant. After his studies he started his career as a Management Trainee at Heineken in 1981. At Heineken he had a lot of different management positions in both the Netherlands and the rest of the world before becoming an Executive Board member in 2002. In 2005 he became the company’s CFO and during the 10 years he fulfilled this role, Heineken expanded to the second largest brewer of the world with gross revenues of more than 20 billion euros per year. In 2015 René was awarded the CFO Lifetime Achievement Award.
Michel Scholte
Michel Scholte is an impact entrepreneur, director and cofounder of True Price and Impact Institute.
True Price focuses on calculating and improving the true price of products, including social and environmental costs. Impact Institute provides data, software, (digital) education and advice on impact measurement and management. His businesses focus on tech and impact and employ more than fifty people and work globally, from São Paulo to Singapore, for the world’s largest banks and most disruptive social enterprises.
In addition, he is a founding board member of Impact Economy Foundation, that develops the open-source impact accounting method together with Harvard Business School’s Impact Weighted Accounts Initiative.
In the past Michel was steering board member of the Netherlands Food Partnership and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers. He is a frequently asked key-note speaker and publishes daily columns on news and sustainability via LinkedIn. He holds a master's degree in Sociology from VU University Amsterdam, where he specialized in social research, agent-based modelling and living wages.