The Executive Board has appointed Professor of Public Administration Victor Bekkers as the new dean of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). Bekkers will be taking over from Henk van der Molen, who served as ESSB’s dean since 2009, as of 1 January 2018.
Bekkers already held the position of vice-dean of the faculty, which until 1 September 2017 went by the name of Faculty of Social Sciences. In addition, he served as research director within the faculty’s Public Administration programme, founding dean for Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and chair of the Department of Public Administration and Sociology.
“Victor Bekkers is able to bring people together; he is a dynamic and inspiring personality who wants to build bridges by means of open dialogue. He enjoys broad support within the faculty, thanks in part to his affinity with all fields of research within ESSB and beyond. I have no doubt that he will be able to further develop ESSB with a new strategy,” says rector Huib Pols about the incoming dean.
Background in Nijmegen and Tilburg
Victor Bekkers graduated with honours from Radboud University Nijmegen’s Political Science and Public Administration programme, before earning his doctorate at Tilburg University. After remaining with this University for a number of years, Bekkers went on to work for the private sector. He combined this with an endowed chair in IT Infrastructures in the Public and Private Sector at Erasmus University Rotterdam. EUR appointed him as Professor of Public Administration in 2002.
