Supervisory board chairman NS leaves – Financieele Dagblad (Registration)

The chairman of the supervisory board of the Dutch Railways Carel van den Driest get on. That NS Wednesday. Van den Driest held the position since October 2012

Carel van den Driest in 2005.

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Busy period

Van den Driest has a busy period behind. Earlier this month stepped Timo Huges as president of NS after he had lost the confidence of the Supervisory Board. Huges had lied about his involvement in abuses in the procurement of public transport in Limburg

Letter Carel van den Driest about his departure (pdf)

This week, however, that there is uncertainty about the departure of Huges. The departed president insists he has not resigned, but just resigned from his administrative duties. Huges would have expressed orally take data redundancy, but because the Supervisory Board there is no written evidence, there is now uncertainty.

Complex legal situation

The question is relevant because NS tries bonus Huges in 2014 got to recover. Because of his performance in that year Huges received up to € 86,000 on top of his fixed annual salary. The Annual Report 2014 shows that Huges last year received a fixed salary of € 430,000.

Van den Driest concludes that much has gone wrong in communication between the NS and the sole shareholder, the Ministry of Finance. The Commissioner argues that the “messy way of the intended resignation of Mr Huges has resulted in a complex legal situation,” he writes in a letter to Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem. “The resulting situation I regret very much, as I also regret the harsh public beating of Mr. Huges. For all this I feel a great deal of responsibility. For these reasons, I decided my position as commissioner in NS to make them available.

On the right way

Van den Driest get completely on their own initiative, as a spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance requested to know. “We are informed, but we have certainly not called for,” says a spokeswoman.

The commissioner says underway of regrettable things. “We were on the train on the right path,” Van den Driest writes.

Vopak

Carel van den Driest is a former CEO of Vopak. From 2002 to 2006 he was the boss in the warehousing where he still serves on the Supervisory Board. He is commissioner in dredging company Van Oord and Anthony Veder Group.

Van den Driest started his career in 1971 as a finance trainee in Shell. After this he worked for many years in shipping Van Ommeren, which later merged with Pakhoed in Vopak.