Henri Gregory (Bob) Sijthoff is a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
businessman.
Family
Sijthoff is a descendant of the famous Dutch Sijthoff family. The family is known through their connections to the
Luitingh-Sijthoff
Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) is a Dutch publishing group of fiction and nonfiction books that is active also in Belgium. It operates through multiple units. Its headquarters are located in Utrecht.
History
Bosch & Keuning was founded in 1925 whe ...
publishing company and to several regional newspapers like the now defunct ''
Haagsche Courant
250px, The former headquarters of the Haagsche Courant in Rijswijk
The ''Haagsche Courant'' operated as an independent newspaper between 1864 and 2005 in The Hague and its suburbs. After it was acquired by the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) it is now pu ...
''. The publishing company and the ''Haagsche Courant'' were the property of Sijthoff's grandfather Henri, but have since passed into the hands of other Sijthoff family members.
''Het Financieele Dagblad''
Sijthoff's father, Henk Sijthoff (1915–2000), was the founder of the Dutch business newspaper ''
Het Financieele Dagblad
''Het Financieele Dagblad'' is a daily Dutch newspaper focused on business and financial matters. In English, the name translates to ''The financial daily newspaper.'' The paper was established in 1943. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam. I ...
'' (The Financial Daily). After a lengthy negotiation, this newspaper was ultimately sold in 1997, for a converted sum of €38 million. Bob Sijthoff had become a Commissioner of the paper well before this sale. Founder Henk Sijthoff died three years later and Bob Sijthoff inherited a part of his wealth. Sijthoff has since resigned as Commissioner of ''Het Financieele Dagblad'' and sold his company interests.
Willem Sijthoff
Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gu ...
, a grandnephew of Bob, together with a company known as HAL Investments, became the new owners of ''Het Financieele Dagblad''.
Controversies
Prison time for extortion
Sijthoff has been involved in several controversies in his time. On 15 April 2008, it became known that Sijthoff had invited Swiss banker Hurlimann to his office in 2004, to put pressure on him to make a statement in favor of Sijthoff. In April 2008, Sijthoff had to account for his actions before the court in The Hague. In July 2004, Sijthoff had already been held by the Swiss Justice and arrested and detained for two weeks. On 11 March 2009, The Hague court convicted Sijthoff to 18 months in prison for extortion. He appealed and after his appeal in 2013, his sentence changed to a year probation.
Housing deal
In an article in ''
Quote
Quote is a hypernym of quotation, as the repetition or copy of a prior statement or thought. Quotation marks are punctuation marks that indicate a quotation. Both ''quotation'' and ''quotation marks'' are sometimes abbreviated as "quote(s)".
C ...
'' in July 2006,
Jort Kelder
Jort Kelder (born 22 September 1964) is a Dutch journalist, television presenter and former editor of the magazine ''Quote''.
In the 2018-2019 season, he presented the Sunday discussion program Buitenhof for AVROTROS as a replacement for Pieter J ...
states that a confidant of
Willem Endstra told him that Sijthoff bought two pit houses in Amsterdam from Endstra in March 2001, through the mediation of
Willem Holleeder. Kelder claims that
cadastre data showed that the apartments were sold well below market value: the apartments were sold for €374,369 each to Sijthoff.
Wikipedia
In November 2008, Sijthoff made the news because he did not want an article about him published on the
Dutch Wikipedia
The Dutch Wikipedia ( nl, Nederlandstalige Wikipedia) is the Dutch-language edition of the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. It was founded on 19 June 2001.
As of , the Dutch Wikipedia is the -largest Wikipedia edition, with articles. It w ...
. According to him the article contained "false and abusive" texts. He sued "the Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland" and "the Stichting Wikimedia Nederland" and demanded the publication of the particulars of the author of the article and that the article would be removed from the Dutch Wikipedia. He is the first Dutchman demanding through the court that his Wikipedia article be removed. Ruling on this case took place on 10 December 2008. The court rejected his request. The judge stated that he has sued the wrong entity. The legal responsibility for the content of the articles would not lie in the Netherlands, but with the American
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...
. According to the court, Sijthoffs lawyer did not make it sufficiently plausible that the Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland and the Stichting Wikimedia Nederland have control over the provision and content of the Dutch version of Wikipedia.
Autosport
As a sportsman, Sijthoff races together with his son Diederik Sijthoff in the team of ACS Racing in the Dutch Supercar Challenge. The team drives a Marcos Mantis with starting number 241.
Rijdersprofiel Sijthoff op Supercarchallenge.nl
In 2000, Sijthoff took part of the Dutch Toerwagen-kampioenschap in a Honda Integra on the Circuit Park Zandvoort
Circuit Zandvoort (), known for sponsorship reasons as CM.com Circuit Zandvoort, and previously known as Circuit Park Zandvoort until 2017, is a motorsport race track located in the dunes north of Zandvoort, the Netherlands, near the North Sea ...
together with his team mate Bert Ploeg with the team name BPR Honda.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sijthoff, Bob
1940s births
Living people
Dutch businesspeople
Dutch racing drivers
People from Wassenaar