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Neelie Kroes
European Commissioner for Competition
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 22, 2004
Preceded by	Mario Monti
Minister of Transport and Water Management
In office November 4, 1982 – November 7, 1989
Preceded by	Henk Zeevalking
Succeeded by	Hanja Maij-Weggen
State Secretary of Transport and Water Management
In office December 28, 1977 – September 11, 1981
Preceded by	Michel van Hulten
Succeeded by	Jaap van der Doef
Born	July 19, 1941 (1941-07-19) (age 66) (age 66) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Political party	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)
Website	ec.europa.eu

Neelie Kroes (born July 19, 1941 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland) is a Dutch politician and businessperson.

Neelie Kroes was a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Later she was the Dutch State Secretary and Minister of Transport and Water Management. Neelie Kroes was member of the board of commissioners of several multinationals. She currently is the Dutch European Commissioner for Competition.

Contents 1 Career before politics 2 Local and national politics 3 After politics 4 European Commission 5 Miscellaneous information 6 References 7 External links

Kroes went to a protestant grammar school in Rotterdam. She continued on a Protestant high school. In 1958 she went to study Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 1961, Kroes was preses of the R.V.S.V. (the largest Rotterdam Sorority). She was also elected as a member of the University Council. After obtaining her Master of Science in Economics in 1965, she became a research fellow at the economic faculty at that university. During this period Kroes was involved in the women's organisation within the VVD. In this period she also was member of the board of Heavy Transporting company "ZwaTra", the company of her father.

Neelie Kroes was elected member of the Rotterdam city council for the VVD since 1970.

In 1971 she was elected to the lower house of parliament, forcing her to stop her fellowship. In parliament, she became spokesperson for education. She remained a member of parliament until 1977, when she became junior minister of Transport and Waterworks in the First Van Agt Cabinet, responsible for Postal and Telephone Services and Transport. In 1981 she briefly returned to the lower house of parliament, while her party, VVD, was in the opposition. In 1982 she returned to office in the First and Second Lubbers Cabinets, now as the minister for Transport and Waterworks, a post that she held until 1989. As a minister she was responsible for the privatisation of the Post and Telephone Services, as well as the commissioning of the Betuwe-railway.

Kroes refused to become minister of Defense in 1988;

After her time as minister Kroes became a member of the Rotterdam Chamber of Commerce, furthermore she served as a board member for Ballast Nedam (shipping), ABP-PGGM (a pension fund), NIB (an investment bank), McDonald's Netherlands, Nedlloyd, and Nederlandse Spoorwegen (the privatized Dutch railroad company).

In 1991 she became chairperson of Nyenrode University, a private business school. During this period Kroes also was a member of the Advisory Board of the Prof.Mr. B.M. Teldersstichting, the scientific bureau of VVD.

Kroes has held and still holds many side offices, mainly in cultural and social organisations. She is chairperson of Poets of all Nations, the Delta Psychiatric Hospital and of the board of the Rembrandt House Museum. Also, she is still a member of several boards of commissioners, for instance at Nedlloyd (a shipping company) and Lucent Technologies (an information and communication technologies company).

In 2004 Neelie Kroes was appointed the European Commissioner for Competition. Her nomination was heavily criticised because of her ties to big business and alleged involvement in shady arms deals. Kroes has tried to uphold her integrity; whenever she has to deal with issues concerning competition in branches of industry in which she used to be active as a board member, Commissioner McCreevy takes over her responsibilities. As of January 2006 this has happened in five cases.

As chairperson of Nijenrode University, Kroes awarded an honorary doctorate to Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 1996. As a European Commissioner for Competition one of her first tasks in 2004 was to oversee the fining brought onto Microsoft by the European Commission (see European Union Microsoft antitrust case).

Kroes attended conferences organized by the Bilderberg Group in 2005 and 2006.

In 2006 Neelie Kroes was number 38 on Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women list,^[1] in 2005 she was number 44.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 Neelie Kroes is number 59 on Forbes' The 100 Most Powerful Women list ^[2]. She has been given the nickname "Nickel Neelie" because of her toughness dealing with anti-trust issues.

• Kroes, a liberal, was married to social democratic minister and mayor Bram Peper.
• Kroes is a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion since 1981 and a Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau since 1989.
• Kroes was International Road Federation Man of the Year of 1993.
• Kroes is a confidant of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and persuaded her to switch allegiance from the social democratic PvdA to the VVD.

• Neelie Kroes at the European Commission website
• Drs. N. Kroes at parlement.com

Political offices
Preceded by Michel van Hulten	State Secretary of Transport and Water Management 1977–1981	Succeeded by Jaap van der Doef
Preceded by Henk Zeevalking	Minister of Transport and Water Management 1982–1989	Succeeded by Hanja Maij-Weggen
Preceded by Mario Monti	Commissioner for Competition 2004 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by Frits Bolkestein	Dutch European Commissioner 2004 – present	Incumbent

v • d • e Barroso Commission (2004 - 2009)

Joaquín Almunia · José Manuel Barroso · Jacques Barrot · Joe Borg · Stavros Dimas · Benita Ferrero-Waldner · Ján Figeľ · Franco Frattini · Mariann Fischer Boel · Dalia Grybauskaitė · Danuta Hübner · Siim Kallas · László Kovács · Neelie Kroes · Meglena Kuneva · Markos Kyprianou · Peter Mandelson · Charlie McCreevy · Louis Michel · Leonard Orban · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding · Olli Rehn · Vladimír Špidla · Günter Verheugen · Margot Wallström