Board member Roelien Ritsema van Eck to leave Erasmus University

Erasmus University announced in a press release that after having served on the Executive Board for less than two years, Roelien Ritsema van Eck will be leaving the university to join the Board of Directors of the Alliantie housing association in Hilversum. Ritsema van Eck held Finance, Economic Policy, Property, Plant and Equipment, and Reporting portfolios.

 

Ritsema van Eck, born 1975, embarked on her duties on 1 November 2018, having succeeded Eddy Hus in his position. EUR had recruited her because of her ‘expertise and experience of finance, IT, operations and change management’. She will start in her new position with a housing association on 15 October 2020. What she likes about her new position is the focus on helping vulnerable people and collaborating with private and financial market players. In addition, her new job is closer to home, “which is great for my three young daughters.”

At the start of 2020, Ritsema van Eck sustained a complicated leg fracture while skiing. As a result, she had been working from home for quite a while, starting to do so even before the coronavirus outbreak.

“I’m leaving the university with pain in my heart, but I’m also looking forward to getting started with De Alliantie and addressing the societal issues I will encounter in that job,” she stated in the press release. She also said she will look back on her time at EUR ‘with fondness’.

Humour and light-footedness

EUR to get a new chairman of the board, as well

• New Chair of the Executive Board: Ed Brinksma
• New chair of the Executive Board Ed Brinksma ‘loves life’ and speaks several languages

Rector Rutger Engels and interim chairman of the board Hans Smits expressed their gratitude to Ritsema van Eck ‘for the work she has done for EUR, and we wish her the best of luck in this new episode in her life’. The chairman of the Supervisory Board, Jaap Winter, said he was sorry she is leaving. “But we thank her for her hard work on behalf of EUR in the recent period. We always felt our Operations portfolios were in good hands with her.”

Hans van den Berg, the chair of the University Council, called Ritsema van Eck ‘a wonderful person to work with’. “She has a sense of humour, and a certain light-footedness in the way she goes about her work, but she was serious when it mattered. Obviously, we are very sorry to hear she is leaving, but we wish Roelien the very best in her new job.”

The Supervisory Board and the Executive Board, which now consists of Rector Rutger Engels and (starting from 1 September) Ed Brinksma, will start looking for a suitable successor to Ritsema van Eck in the next few months. Until a successor has been found, the chairman will look after Ritsema van Eck’s portfolios. University Council chair Van den Berg will ensure that ‘diversity’ is taken into account when the new member of the board is appointed. “That’s a high priority for us.”