Jan Peter Balkenende
European boards are being asked to deliver on climate, inclusion and innovation at the same time, while shareholders, regulators and governments pull in different directions. The question leaders keep returning to is not whether capitalism needs reform, but what a credible European version of it looks like in practice. Getting that wrong costs license to operate; getting it right requires a framework most executives do not yet have.
Jan Peter Balkenende, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Professor Emeritus at Erasmus University Rotterdam, helps boards and governments translate sustainable market-economy principles into workable strategy on climate, inclusion and innovation.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Jan Peter Balkenende
- Eight years leading a G20 economy through financial crisis, EU enlargement and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gives him a view from inside the machine that almost no executive adviser can match.
- His book with Govert Buijs, “Capitalism Reconnected” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), sets out a specific European alternative to both Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism, which boards can use as a reference point for their own strategy.
- As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he convenes AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever around common sustainability positions, so he speaks with current standing, not archive authority.
- Minister of State status in the Netherlands and membership of Club de Madrid keep him close to working heads of government, which gives audiences a read on political risk that goes beyond press coverage.
- He pairs the institutional authority of a former PM with the working vocabulary of a senior adviser at EY and Hague Corporate Affairs, so corporate audiences get policy insight translated into commercial language.
Biography highlights
- Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2002 to 2010, across four cabinets.
- Held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2004.
- Professor Emeritus of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
- Minister of State, Kingdom of the Netherlands, since October 2022.
- Chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition; Chair of the Noaber Foundation; Executive Board member, Global Center on Adaptation; Member, Club de Madrid.
- External Senior Advisor to EY; Associate Partner at Hague Corporate Affairs.
- Co-author, “Capitalism Reconnected: Toward a Sustainable, Inclusive and Innovative Market Economy in Europe” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024).
Biography
European economies are being asked to reinvent themselves at the same time as they govern themselves. Jan Peter Balkenende has spent more than two decades inside that tension, first as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010 and then as an adviser, academic and convenor of corporate leaders.
Four successive cabinets and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gave him direct experience of how EU decisions are actually made, from enlargement to financial crisis response. That institutional memory now sits alongside a current role as Minister of State and as a member of Club de Madrid, the association of former heads of government.
His intellectual contribution is set out in “Capitalism Reconnected,” co-written with political philosopher Govert Buijs and published by Amsterdam University Press in 2024. The book argues that Europe should stop defending its model defensively and instead frame a sustainable, inclusive and innovative market economy as a distinct offer, positioned between Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism.
The argument is not theoretical for him. As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he works with the CEOs of AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever on shared positions around climate, circularity and social equality, supported by VNO-NCW and facilitated by Accenture. Erasmus University Rotterdam, EY and Hague Corporate Affairs provide the academic and advisory base. The through-line, across government, campus and corporate rooms, is the same: Europe can only lead on sustainability if its companies and its institutions work from the same playbook.
Key speaking topics
- European market-economy reform
- Sustainable and inclusive growth strategy
- Governance and public-private collaboration
- ESG and corporate responsibility in European context
- Geopolitical and policy risk for business
- Institutional leadership and long-term decision making
- Climate adaptation and the role of business
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees setting European sustainability and ESG strategy
- CEOs and CFOs navigating EU regulation, climate policy and geopolitical risk
- Public-sector and multilateral audiences working on public-private cooperation
- Leadership and strategy summits with a European or transatlantic agenda
Audience outcomes
- A concrete reference framework, drawn from “Capitalism Reconnected,” for positioning a European business between state-led and shareholder-led models.
- A clearer read on how EU-level decisions are made, and where corporate influence actually lands.
- Live examples of how eight Dutch multinationals translate sustainable growth commitments into joint positions.
- A sharper sense of which political risks matter for strategy, and which are noise.
- Direct perspective from a former head of government on leading through crisis with contested public trust.