PRESS RELEASE
Wilfred Griekspoor succeeds Ivar Samrén as chair of the Governing Council of the Van Leer Group Foundation
Amstelveen, June 2, 2008 - Wilfred Griekspoor (57) will become chair of the Van Leer Group Foundation on June 12, 2008. He will succeed Ivar Samrén (69), who is retiring.
The Van Leer Group Foundation is a philanthropic holding which supports the activities of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Jerusalem Film Centre. The Israeli venture capital company Docor International Management is fully owned by the Van Leer Group Foundation.
Ivar Samrén has been a member of the Governing Council of the Van Leer Group Foundation since 1981. At that time, he served as a member of the Executive Board of N.V. Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer and as chairman of the Executive Board of Magazijn De Bijenkorf B.V.
As the first non-family member, he succeeded Oscar Van Leer in 1986 as chairman of the Governing Council of the Van Leer Group Foundation, from which position he will now retire after 22 years. During this period he has also served for many years as member and chair of the supervisory board of Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer B.V. and of the boards of trustees of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation.
Wilfred Griekspoor is director emeritus at McKinsey & Company and serves on the boards of PharmAccess Foundation in Amsterdam and the Infectious Disease Institute of Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda. Before, he served as supervisory board member of Nederlands Omroepproductie Bedrijf, vice chairman of Medecins Sans Frontieres Holland, interim managing director and member Technical Review Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, and founding board member of the AIDS Foundation East West in Moscow.
For more information please contact:
Van Leer Group Foundation, André Betting (executive director),
tel. + 31 20 645-3231.