Frans van Houten

Frans van Houten
Frans van Houten at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2013
Born	François Adrianus van Houten (1960-04-26) 26 April 1960 (age 56) Netherlands
Occupation	CEO

François Adrianus "Frans" van Houten (born 26 April 1960) is the successor to Gerard Kleisterlee, as Chief Executive Officer of the Dutch company of Royal Philips Electronics (known universally as Philips), taking over the position on 1 April 2011.

The son of a member of the board of directors of Philips, Frans van Houten studied Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and started his career at Philips in 1986 in marketing and sales at Philips Data Systems. He held several positions in the company, becoming co-head of the consumer electronics division in 2002.

In November 2004, he became CEO of Philips Semiconductors, where he led the spin-off of the division, resulting in the formation of NXP Semiconductors on 1 October 2006. Van Houten left his position as Chief Executive Officer, NXP on 31 December 2008.

On 8 July 2010 he was nominated to succeed Gerard Kleisterlee as CEO of Philips.