Just Spee (born 12 January 1965) is a Dutch football administrator. Since 17 December 2019 he serves as President of the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB).

Background and career

Just Spee was born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

on 12 January 1965. After his Master Business/Managerial Econometrics at the

Vrije Universiteit The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

(Free University of Amsterdam), he started working in business. Spee has worked as a manager at companies such as

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

Rothmans Rothmans may refer to: * Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company * Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman See also * Rothman, a surname * Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car ra ...

and Alvarez & Marsal. In 2012 Spee became CEO of

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

, the biggest independent TV producer in the world. Hereafter, Spee became CEO at

Stage Entertainment Stage Entertainment is an international operating live entertainment company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. The company was founded in 1998 by Joop van den Ende in Amsterdam. History The Netherlands / Corporate The root of the company l ...

. Just Spee is a member of the Supervisory Boards of various companies and civil society organizations such as the

OLVG Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (English: "Our Lady Hospital") is a major clinical hospital situated near Oosterpark in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands ...

hospital (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

) and

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Netherlands. Furthermore, he was a mentor for

Future Female Leaders The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

Career in football

Just Spee played football at the Royal Haarlem Football Club (

Koninklijke HFC Koninklijke Haarlemsche Football Club (Royal Haarlem Football Club) is a football club based in Haarlem, Netherlands. It is the oldest existing club in Dutch football, founded by Pim Mulier in 1879. During the club's early years the team only ...

). Later he became a member of the board of this football club. Spee had already come into contact with football during his career in business as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Eredivisie Media & Marketing CV. At the end of May 2019, Spee was elected as President of the KNVB. In December 2019 he officially took office as the successor of

Michael van Praag Michael van Praag (born 28 September 1947) is a Dutch association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and former referee (association football), referee. He was the Royal Dutch Football Association, President of the Royal ...

. At the 44th

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

conference, held in 2020 in Amsterdam, Spee announced that under his leadership, the KNVB would be playing an active and connecting role in the international world of football. Spee realized this ambition by being elected as a member of UEFA's Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is the highest executive organ of UEFA. This committee decides over the structure of the European footballing landscape in relation to competition formats, (financial) regulation, governance, elections, safety and licensing terms.

References

Businesspeople from Haarlem Presidents of the Royal Dutch Football Association Members of the UEFA Executive Committee Living people 1965 births Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni Endemol {{Netherlands-bio-stub