Background
Willem Kok IV was born on 29 September 1938, in Bergambacht in the Netherlands Province of South Holland, the son of Willem Kok III a carpenter, and Neeltje de Jager. He has one younger brother born in 1945.
lobbyist politician trade union leader Corporate director
Willem Kok IV was born on 29 September 1938, in Bergambacht in the Netherlands Province of South Holland, the son of Willem Kok III a carpenter, and Neeltje de Jager. He has one younger brother born in 1945.
He studied business at the Nyenrode Business Universiteit.
After completing his studies, he started his career in 1961 at the socialist Netherlands Association of Trade Unions (NVV), where he was chairman from 1973 until 1982. In 1982, the NVV merged with Nederlands Katholiek Vakverbond (NKV), the Catholic trade union, to form the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV), of which he served as chair until 1986.
Kok was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives on 3 June 1986, after the Dutch general election of 1986. Soon after the election Joop den Uyl the Leader of the Labour Party and Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives announced that he was stepping down after serving twenty years as Leader of the Labour Party. Kok was elected to succeed him and became Party and Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives on 21 July 1986 and served as Opposition leader during the parliamentary period of the Cabinet Lubbers II.
Kok leads his party in the Dutch general election of 1989. The Labour Party lost three seats but the following cabinet formation resulted in a coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which formed the Cabinet Lubbers III. Kok entered government for the first time and became both Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Finance, serving from 7 November 1989 until 22 August 1994.
In the 1994 general election, the Labour Party lost twelve seats but the CDA with new leader Elco Brinkman lost twenty seats. The Labour Party became the largest party in the House of Representatives, after an arduous cabinet formation with the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the social liberal Democrats 66 (D66) a deal was struck that resulted in the Cabinet Kok I, with Kok as Prime Minister. It was considered groundbreaking in Dutch politics this was the first Cabinet of the Netherlands since 1908 without a Christian democratic party.
The main aim of the Cabinet Kok I was to create employment. The Dutch economy had been in a deep recession for years. The market was allowed more influence in the economy. This led to a policy of tax reduction, economizing, and trying to keep people out of social care by supporting employment; large infrastructure projects were set in motion. Another aim was to put an end to the enormous debt of the Dutch government. The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed during this cabinet. The Srebrenica massacre occurred under the responsibility of this government, which eventually led to the fall of the second Kok cabinet.
In the 1998 general election, the Labour party gained eight seats; the coalition retained its majority, and cabinet formation resulted in a continuation of policies with the Cabinet Kok II.
The second cabinet was the successor of the first cabinet was formed from the same coalition of PvdA, VVD and D66. It was also known as the "second purple cabinet" called such because it contained both the social-democratic PvdA (red) and the liberal VVD (blue). The aim of the cabinet was to continue the policy of cabinet Kok I, which was concerned with economizing, tax reduction, and making an end to unemployment. Kok was the prime minister, Annemarie Jorritsma as the deputy prime minister for the VVD, and Els Borst for D66. The cabinet had both left-wing and right-wing political parties as a part of it. There was no strong opposition in the House of Representatives. This did not mean that Kok did not face any problems. In May 1999, D66 stepped out of the coalition when proposed legislation on referenda, entered by this party, was blocked; through negotiations, the crisis was solved and the cabinet stayed together. Moreover, allegations of expenses abuse were made against Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Bram Peper from the time he was mayor of Rotterdam. On 13 March 2000 Peper resigned as minister, according to himself to no longer bring problems to the public government, and to be better able to defend himself. On the other hand, Kok's second term is known for legalizing same-sex marriage and euthanasia.
On 15 December 2001, Kok announced he would retire from national politics after the elections of May 2002. He stood down as Leader of the Labour Party that same day, in favor of Ad Melkert. Unfortunately, Melkert did not appeal to the voter. Moreover, the "polder model" went out of fashion in early 2002, which saw the rise of Pim Fortuyn, a political newcomer.
On 16 April 2002, close to the natural end of term for the cabinet, prime minister Kok wished to resign early after being harshly criticised in a government-commissioned report by the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies regarding the fall of Srebrenica in 1995 and the other ministers had no choice but to follow him. The second Kok cabinet remained in place as a caretaker cabinet, which had to cope with the murder of Fortuyn, and the CDA with leader Jan Peter Balkenende winning the elections. The caretaker cabinet stepped down on 22 July 2002, when the Cabinet Balkenende I was installed.
After his premiership, Kok retired from active politics at the age of sixty-three and became a lobbyist for the European Union and presided over several "high-level groups". He also occupied numerous seats on supervisory boards in the business and industry world (ING Group, Koninklijke TNT Post, Royal Dutch Shell, KLM, Stork B.V., International Commission on Missing Persons, International Crisis Group, Anne Frank Foundation and served as president of the Club of Madrid from 2009 until the December 2013).
Between April and November 2004, Kok headed up a review of the Lisbon Strategy and presented a report containing suggestions on how to give new impetus to the Lisbon process. The European Commission used this report to declare that the social and environmental parts are no longer a priority and declared a return to the Lisbon Agenda under economic terms only. Kok lobbied for the Lisbon Strategy of the European Commission and was appointed to the Honorary Board of the European Association of History Educators.
Between 2006 and 2007, Kok served as a member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters.
Kok died of heart failure on 20 October 2018 in Amsterdam, aged 80.
Kok, a trade union leader by profession, worked for the Netherlands Association of Trade Unions from 1961 until 1976, when it merged to form the Federation Netherlands Labour Movement. Kok served as its first chairman from 1976 until 1986 when he left to enter the House of Representatives as a Labour politician. After the general election of 1994 Kok became Prime Minister of the Netherlands, taking office on 22 August 1994. In the following general election in 1998 Kok's party gained eight seats and the coalition retained its majority with a new cabinet being formed, continuing its policies. On 15 December 2001 Kok announced his retirement from national politics and stood down as Leader of the Labour Party that same day. He remained Prime Minister of the Netherlands until the First Balkenende cabinet was installed on 22 July 2002, semi-retiring from active politics at the age of 63.
From 1986 to 1989 and after the 1994 and 1998 parliamentary elections, Mr. Kok served as a Member of the Lower House of the States General and Chairman of the Labour Party Members in Parliament. He serves as the Chairman of the National Ballet and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital "Netherlands Cancer Institute". He served as Chairman of the EVV (European Trade Union Confederation) from 1979 to 1982 and Confederation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV).
He served as Chairman of the NVV Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions and following the merger of the NVV with the NKV Dutch Federation of Catholic Trade Unions the FNV Federation of Netherlands Trade Unions from 1973 to 1985. He served as a Vice Chairman of the Public Social and Economic Council (SER), Employee Chairman of the Stichting van de Arbeid (Joint Industrial Labour Council). He served as a Vice-Chairman of the Rijksmuseum. He served as a Vice-Chairman of Bank Council at Dutch Central Bank. He served as a Trustee of Het Muziektheater and Director of Stichting Start Foundation.
He also served as a Non-Executive Director of Shell Transport and Trading Company Limited. and has been its Member of Supervisory Board - Royal Dutch since July 01 2003. Kok served as an Independent Non-Executive Director of China Construction Bank Corporation, Singapore Branch. He also served as a Member of the Supervisory Board at KLM N.V., Het Nationale Ballet and TPG N.V. He was a member of an Independent Non-Executive Director of China Construction Bank Corporation from October 24, 2013, to June 2017. He served as a Member of Supervisory Board at PostNL N.V., since April 1, 2003.
Mr. Kok served as a Non-Executive Director at Royal Dutch Shell PLC from October 2004 to May 17, 2011. Will served as a Member of Supervisory Board at Stork B.V. since January 26, 2007, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM N.V) until July 2011 and ING Verzekeringen N.V (alternate name NN Group N.V.) until April 27, 2009. He served as a Member of the Supervisory Board at ING Groep N.V. (formerly ING Group N.V) from April 15, 2003 to April 27, 2009. He served as a Member of Supervisory Board at Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. from July 1, 2003 to July 4, 2005.
He also served as a Member of Supervisory Board at ING Bank N.V. He served as a Non-Executive Director of TNT and a member of as an Advisor of European Commission on the consequences of expanding the European Union. He was the Chairman of the Anne Frank Foundation. He was the President of the European Trade Union Confederation from 1979 to 1982 and President of the Netherlands Confederation of Trade Unions from 1973 to 1985. He is also a Member of the board of trustees of the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Member of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).
In 1965, after four years of dating, Kok married Margrietha "Rita" Roukema (born 3 November 1939). He adopted her two children from a previous marriage, daughter Carla (born 1959) and son André (born 1961), who is mentally and physically disabled, and together they had a third child, son Marcel (born 1966).