Gerrit Zalm

Gerrit Zalm (born 6 May 1952) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He served as Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister from May 27, 2003 until February 22, 2007 in the Cabinets Balkenende II and III. He served earlier as Minister of Finance in the Cabinets Kok I and II from August 22, 1994 until July 22, 2002. After his term as Minister of Finance ended in 2002 he was selected by the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy to succeed retiring Party leader and Parliamentary leader in House of Representatives Hans Dijkstal. He served in this position for a full year for before becoming Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the Cabinet Balkenende II.

He was the longest serving Minister of Finance in the History of the Netherlands and has been responsible for numerous reforms of the Economy of the Netherlands. He retired from politics after the completion of the term of the Cabinet Balkenende III.

On February 28, 2009 he was named as the CEO of the newly government owned bank ABN AMRO.

Biography

Early life

Following his graduation from high school ("HBS-A" level) in Enkhuizen, Zalm began a study in economics at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, from which he graduated in 1975. In the same year he joined the Ministry of Finance. From 1983 he worked for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, where he eventually became a director. In 1988 he was appointed deputy director of the Centraal Planbureau, a state institution that, among other things, calculates the financial effects of government plans. In 1989 he became director there. In that capacity Zalm had, although not formally a politician, a significant influence on politics. From 1990 he also gave lectures at the Vrije Universiteit.

Politics

Between 22 August 1994 and 22 July 2002, Zalm, member of the market liberal party People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, was Minister of Finance in the first and second Wim Kok administrations. The Dutch economy being very healthy during those years, he did not experience large difficulties. However, he did introduce certain standards that are in effect until now, among which the Zalmnorm (Zalm standard) which describes a state policy by which the state does not respond extremely to economic fluctuations but just counteracts them.During the first, short Balkenende administration, Zalm was the acting leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy group in parliament. On 27 May 2003 he started his third term as Minister of Finance, in the second Balkenende administration, also serving as Deputy Prime Minister. On 30 June 2006, he succeeded Laurens Jan Brinkhorst as Minister of Economic Affairs, ad interim, with most tasks delegated to junior minister Karien van Gennip. On 7 July 2006 Joop Wijn was appointed as the new Minister of Economic Affairs.

After politics

On 26 November 2006, he announced in the Sunday morning talk show Buitenhof that he would step down from politics and would probably seek employment in the private sector. Zalm ended up working for the DSB Bank, a bank known for giving loans to lower-income people. On 21 November 2008 it was announced by Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende that Zalm will be the new CEO of the bank resulting from the merger of ABN and Fortis Netherlands, two recently nationalized banks.

Personal

Zalm is a fan of Pinball and during his second term as Minister of Finance he had a pinball machine in his department.

In 2004 he had a Cameo appearance in the movie Cool of Theo van Gogh.

Decorations

• Netherlands
  • Order of Oranje-Nassau
    • Officer (December 10, 2002)
    • Commander (April 11, 2007)

External links

• (Dutch) Dr. G. (Gerrit) Zalm (Parlement & Politiek)

Civic offices
Preceded by Peter de Ridder	Director of the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis 1989–1994	Succeeded by Henk Don
Political offices
Preceded by Wim Kok	Minister of Finance 1994–2002	Succeeded by Hans Hoogervorst
Preceded by Laurens Jan Brinkhorst	Minister of Economic Affairs 2006	Succeeded by Joop Wijn
Preceded by Johan Remkes Roelf de Boer	Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2003–2007 Served alongside: Thom de Graaf (2003–2005), Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (2005–2006)	Succeeded by Wouter Bos André Rouvoet
Preceded by Hans Hoogervorst	Minister of Finance 2003–2007	Succeeded by Wouter Bos
Party political offices
Preceded by Hans Dijkstal	Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy 2002–2004	Succeeded by Jozias van Aartsen
	Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives 2002–2003
Business positions
Preceded by Rijkman Groenink	Chairman of ABN AMRO 2009–present	Incumbent
	Chief Executive Officer of ABN AMRO 2009–present
New office	Chairman of the ABN AMRO Group 2009–present
	Chief Executive Officer of the ABN AMRO Group 2009–present