Schiphol's new CEO will be a man, departing top man says

Schiphol CEO Jos Nijhuis will be succeeded by a man, Nijhuis said to the Volkskrant. The airport wants to employ a male CEO, rather than a woman, because otherwise there will be more women on the board than men.

"Currently the ratio is two and two. Schiphol strives to keep it that way", a spokesperson explained to the newspaper. This balance is also why the airport only invited female candidates when looking for a new CFO. The spokesperson added that Schiphol has already done a lot for gender equality in its organization. "When Nijhuis took office, the board consisted of four men. He made that two men and two women."

When exactly Nijhuis will be stepping down as CEO of the Netherlands' main airport is not yet clear. He initially announced that he will be leaving "in the course of the first quarter of 2018", so before the end of March. In Schiphol's recently published annual report for 2017, his departure date was changed to "as of 31 March 2018". On Thursday the Schiphol spokesperson told the Volkskrant that Nijhuis will stay on longer. "The Supervisory Board of Schiphol wants to announce this quarter who will become the new CEO", the spokesperson said. "Then it becomes known when Jos Nijhuis steps down. That will not be on 31 March."

Earlier this week the committee on Monitoring Top Women advised the government to introduce a quota for businesses on how many women need to be in top functions. In 2013 the government and the business community agreed that at least 30 percent of top executives should be women. But that target is still far from being achieved. This imbalance is rarely a reason to exclude male candidates for a vacancy, so it is remarkable that Schiphol is doing the opposite now.