Aart de Geus

As Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Aart de Geus overlooks the OECD agenda in the areas of Employment, Labour, Social Affairs, (including Pensions, Health and Migration), Education, Public Governance and Territorial Development. He is also in charge of the co-ordination of the horizontal project on Making Reforms Happen, co-ordinating OECD activities on Gender and Diversity Issues, and preparing Ministerial Council Meetings.

Mr. de Geus, a Dutch national, was Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Netherlands from 2002 until 2007. As Minister, Mr. de Geus introduced major reforms in the Dutch social security system, notably by turning it into an activating system where citizens, employers and local authorities take their own responsibilities. During the four years of his tenure, he concluded major national agreements with social partners on wages, reforms of social security and tax-facilities for early retirement. He chaired the OECD Social Policy Ministerial Meeting in 2005 and has served in various functions at local, national and international level.

From 1998 until 2002, Mr. de Geus was a partner in Boer & Croon, an Amsterdam-based company for strategy and management, where he worked in the fields of governments, health care, pensions and human resource development.

Mr. de Geus served as vice-chairman of the executive board of the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions from 1993 to 1998, where he focused on social security, health care, pensions, labour market policy, income policy and education. He had been a member of the Trade Union’s executive board since 1988. Prior to that, Mr. de Geus worked as a lawyer in the industry sector of the Christian Trade Union.

Mr. de Geus has a law degree from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and post-graduate studies in labour law from Nijmegen University. Mr. de Geus is married and has three children. Mr de Geus took up his duties at the OECD on 5 March 2007.