Professor Jan Peter Balkenende (born in 1956) has been a partner at EY since 2011, focusing on corporate responsibility, international affairs and areas at the interface of the public and private sectors. He is also Chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (“DSGC”), a collaborative venture of eight Dutch multinational companies developing and sharing knowledge about integrating sustainability into the strategies and business models of companies. The DSGC’s members are Unilever, DSM, AkzoNobel, Friesland Campina, Philips, Shell, KLM and Heineken. The DSGC is supported by employer association VNO-NCW and facilitated by EY. Since 2010, Jan Peter Balkenende has been Professor of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He also chairs the International Advisory Board of Rotterdam and the Germany-Netherlands Forum.

Jan Peter Balkenende studied economic and social history, as well as Dutch law, at VU University Amsterdam. He obtained a doctorate in law with a thesis entitled ‘Government Regulation and Civil Society Organisations’. He subsequently worked at the Netherlands’ Universities Council, the Research Institute of the political party CDA and as a part-time professor at VU University Amsterdam. He was a member of the Amstelveen municipal council and of the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament. From 2002 to 2010, Jan Peter Balkenende was Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs. In that capacity, he also served as Chair of the Innovation Platform. Before becoming Prime Minster, he published a number of books and articles on a range of subjects, including innovation, development cooperation, European integration, public-private partnerships, social security, government finance, poverty, economic growth, confidence in the economy and the role of the business sector in society. Jan Peter Balkenende received five honorary doctorates from universities in Hungary, Japan, South Korea and the United States.