One of the most requested commissioners, Antony Burgmans

There are those names in the Economic Netherlands that everyone who has been looking for a new commissioner for the past thirty years had her or their company on the phone. Think of people like Hans Wijers, Dick Boer, Jeroen van der Veer, Wilco Jiskoot or the late Karel Vuursteen. One of the most requested commissioners by larger Dutch companies was Antony Burgmans (78). On Thursday, Jumbo announced that he, together with Jiskoot (74), after sixteen years old leaves At the supermarket company. This seems to end a long career along the Netherlands.

Antony Burgmans, where do we know it again?

Burgmans has been working at Unilever for years since 1972, where he finally climbed to the board of directors and was appointed co-board chairman in 1999-the then British-Dutch company still had a dual structure with two head offices and therefore also two presidents. Under the name 'Road to Growth', he brought the approximately 1,600 brands, which the food group still had at the beginning of this century, back to 400. At the same time, there was a lot of criticism, because Burgmans did not achieve the goals he sets from 5 to 6 percent revenue growth per year. In 2005 he got a different role within the company, two years later he left.

And then he became a multicommissaris?

You can say that. Burgmans appears at Aegon, Jumbo, ABN AMRO, BP, Fedex, Intergamma (Gamma and Karwei) and investor SHV. The most striking is the President Commissioner for paint producer AkzoNobel. There Burgmans becomes the center of a huge fight with investors at a late age. The American PPG wants to take over AkzoNobel in 2017, but the commissioners prefer to see the Dutch company remain independent. As chairman of the Supervisory Board, Burgmans is the main culprit for an activist shareholder. He demands his departure. The judge rejects that, but does criticize the way in which AkzoNobel takes.

How did Burgmans worked at Jumbo?

Burgmans and Jiskoot were appointed to Jumbo in 2009 when the company was busy growing considerably. They are seen as important forces that helped in the background with advice with the acquisitions of Super de Boer and C1000, among others. In recent years, Jumbo has been negative in the news due to money laundering and corruptions against former CEO Frits van Eerd. This was done through sponsorship contracts, which also had to monitor the Supervisory Board. An external investigation of free value Jumbo, although of debt, noted that questions should have been asked more critically – especially by the supervisory directors.

Is this the end of the long career of Burgmans?

Burgmans no longer has major supervisoryians, so it looks like that. But we can also just ask him ourselves. A bell to Burgmans does not give a definitive answer, but in a – at his request – he muses a short conversation: “I am in a phase that there are only things going off and nothing more is added. I walk against the eighty, then you will not be asked that often anymore. Then it is also time to do other things.  » Burgmans therefore has more time for his hobbies, one of them is fly fishing, He told a few years ago to NRC.

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