Hans Wijers is Chairman of the Board of Management of AkzoNobel, one of the world’s leading industrial companies. Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the company makes and supply the widest range of paints, coatings and specialty chemicals.

Under his leadership, AkzoNobel has gone through a major transformation. It has changed from a financial holding with a large pharmaceutical business, to a highly focused specialty chemicals and coatings company.

Wijers oversaw the sale of pharmaceutical business Organon BioSciences to Schering-Plough in 2007, a deal which was quickly followed by the acquisition of ICI. In 2008, he guided AkzoNobel through the introduction of its new corporate identity.

A former Minister for Economic Affairs in the Dutch government – a position he held for four years – Wijers was Senior Partner with the Boston Consulting Group and Chairman of BCG’s Dutch office, prior to taking over the helm at AkzoNobel in 2003.

A graduate of the University of Groningen and Assistant Professor of Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands (where he received his PhD in economics), Wijers has participated in two think-tanks for Dutch Ministers and was senior consultant/partner with various Dutch consulting firms.  

He also holds a number of prominent positions outside AkzoNobel. He is non-executive director at Royal Dutch Shell, as well as being Chairman of the Oranje Fonds and Chairman of the Ubbo Emmius Fund Foundation at the University of Groningen.

 In addition, Wijers is a member of both the Board of Directors of the Concertgebouw, and the European Roundtable of Industrialists.