Philippe Raets has been appointed president of the Avans Executive Board by the Supervisory Board. Raets is currently still active in the same position at the ROC Zadkine, a large institute for intermediate vocational education in Rotterdam. The new president will start at Avans on September 1 and succeed Paul Rüpp, who announced his departure this spring.
The Supervisory Board is convinced that it has found an excellent director for Avans. Ruud Vreeman, chair of the Supervisory Board says: “Raets combines an impressive track record in the public domain with a great heart for education and a creative spirit. With his extensive experience and his eye for students, employees and current major social issues, he is ideally suited to lead the implementation of Ambition 2025 with fellow board members Jacomine Ravensbergen and Sarah Wilton.’’
Wealth of experience as a director
Philippe Raets has been chairman of the Executive Board at Zadkine since 2017. Prior to that, he was municipal secretary and general manager of the Municipality of Rotterdam. Previously, he worked for the national government, municipalities and educational institutions, including Director of Administrative and Management Support for the City of Amsterdam, Director of Finance and Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment and acting Secretary-General at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
Raets: “I am very excited to join Avans University of Applied Sciences: a wonderful and ambitious educational institution in an enterpreneurialand dynamic region. Together with fellow Executive Board members Sarah and Jacomine and with 3,300 Avans employees, I want to work to fully achieve Ambition 2025.”