Ben Verwaayen
| Ben Verwaayen | |
|---|---|
Ben Verwaayen in 2009
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| Born |
February 11, 1952 Driebergen, Province of Utrecht |
| Residence | Paris, France |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Education | Driebergen school |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Occupation | CEO |
| Employer |
ITT Corporation (1975-1988) PTT Telecom(1988-1997) Lucent Technologies (1997-2003) BT Group (2003-2008) Alcatel-Lucent (2008-2013) |
| Home town | Driebergen |
| Political party | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy |
| Spouse(s) | Helena |
| Children | 2 |
| Notes | |
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Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau (Netherlands)
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire KBE (United Kingdom) Chevalier de la Légion d 'Honneur (France) |
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Bernardus Johannes Maria "Ben" Verwaayen (born February 11, 1952) is a Dutch businessman. He was Chief Executive Officer of telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent from 2008 to 2013.
Verwaayen is the fifth of six children born to a family who owned a chemicals business in Driebergen. At school, he organised the first student parliament, and after graduating from Utrecht University with a degree in law and international relations in 1975, wanted to be a journalist or politician.
On graduation, he decided to immediately undertake his National Service with the Royal Netherlands Army, where he founded the Algemene Vereniging Nederlandse Militairen (General Association of Dutch soldiers), a union that existed until 1996.
On leaving the army, to enable him to continue his work with the trade union, he joined a subsidiary of ITT Corporation because it gave him time to sit on a Dutch state committee to reform the army. His first promotion came after he headed to the European Union Parliament in Brussels to protest about the company's alleged role in the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government in Chile - ITT responded by making him its Netherlands public relations chief.
In 1988, Verwaayen became a director of PTT Telecom, the state-owned Dutch telecoms group that was a forerunner of today's KPN; and then appointed a board member of Lucent Technologies in 1997, moving to the United States. A committed Anglophile, he was CEO of BT. During his time there, he was also a board member for Dutch television production company Endemol, and chaired the Confederation of British Industry committee on climate change. There was controversy over his management style at BT with accusations that BT Global Services had to write down substantial losses and that Verwaayen was to blame.
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