Alexander Hendrik George Rinnooy Kan (born 5 October 1949) is a Dutch politician, businessman and mathematician who served as Chairman of the

Social and Economic Council The Social and Economic Council ( Dutch: ''Sociaal-Economische Raad'', SER) is a major economic advisory council to the cabinet of the Netherlands. Formally it heads a system of sector-based regulatory organisations. It represents the social pa ...

from 2006 to 2012. A member of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, he was a member of the Senate from 2015 to 2019 and is a

distinguished professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

of Economics and Business Studies at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

since 1 September 2012. He has also been president of the

supervisory board In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors. In civil s ...

EYE Film Institute Netherlands Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. Location and history Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam in ...

since 2008 and of

Museum Boerhaave Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is a museum of the history of science and medicine, based in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of historical scientific instruments from all disciplines, but mainly from medicine, physics, and astronomy. Th ...

since 2018.

Biography

Early life and education

Rinnooy Kan grew up in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. He graduated with a doctorandus degree (eq. to MSc) in mathematics at Leiden University in 1972. The same year, he also obtained a

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

degree (eq. to

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

) in

econometrics Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

from the

. In 1972–1973, he worked as a mathematician at Spectrum Encyclopedia. From 1973 until 1977, he was a scientific employee in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

(then called the Delft Technical College). In 1976, he obtained a PhD in mathematics at the

; he was advised by

Gijsbert de Leve Gijsbert (Gijs) de Leve (15 August 1926 – 19 November 2009) was a Dutch mathematician and operations researcher, known for his work on Markov decision process. Gijs de Leve is considered the founder of operations research in the Netherlands. B ...

Private career

In 1977, he went to the

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humani ...

, where he became a full

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

Operations Research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve decis ...

in 1980 at the age of 30. In 1983, he was appointed head of the

Econometric Institute Econometric Institute (Dutch ''Econometrisch Instituut'') at the Erasmus University Rotterdam is a leading research institute in the fields of econometrics and management science in the Netherlands. The Institute offers advanced education in econom ...

and in 1986

rector magnificus A rector (Latin for 'ruler') is a senior official in an educational institution, and can refer to an official in either a university or a secondary school. Outside the English-speaking world the rector is often the most senior official in a un ...

of the university. In the meantime, he was visiting professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, among others. From 1991 until 1996, he was president of the employers federation VNO and (after the merger with NCW) of the VNO-NCW. Between 1996 and 2006, Rinnooy Kan was a member of the board of directors of

ING Group The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...

, where he was responsible for the Asian branch. He was a member of the Netherlands Innovation Platform until the platform was dissolved in 2010.

Social Economic Council

From 2006 until 2012, he was a crown-appointed member and Chairman of the

(SER). He was succeeded in this position by Wiebe Draijer. During his farewell party at the SER he was appointed Commander in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

. The Dutch newspaper '' de Volkskrant'' named him the most influential person in the Netherlands in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Senate

On 9 June 2015, he became a member of the Senate on behalf of the Democrats 66 party. He did not seek reelection to the upper chamber in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

; his term ended on 11 June 2019.

Publications

Books

* 1985 ''The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Guided Tour of Combinatorial Optimization''. With Eugene L. Lawler, Jan Karel Lenstra, and David B. Shmoys. John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. * 1993, ''Logistics of Production and Inventory. Vol. 4.'' with Stephen C. Graves, and Paul Herbert Zipkin, eds.

Selected articles

* Byrd, R. H., Dert, C. L., Rinnooy Kan, A. H. G., & Schnabel, R. B. (1990). "Concurrent Stochastic Methods for Global Optimization". ''

Mathematical Programming Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...

'', 46(1-3), 1-29. * Lenstra, A. K., A. H. G. Rinnooy Kan, and Alexander Schrijver. "History of Mathematical Programming: A Collection of Personal Reminiscences." (1991). * Bastian, Cock, and Alexander H. G. Rinnooy Kan. "The Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem Revisited." ''European Journal of Operational Research'' 56.3 (1992): 407–412. * Flippo, O. E., & Rinnooy Kan, A. H. G. (1993). "Decomposition in General Mathematical Programming". ''

'', 60(1-3), 361–382. * Lawler, Eugene L., J. K. Lenstra, A. H. G. Rinnooy Kan, and D.B. Shmoys .
Sequencing and Scheduling: Algorithms and Complexity
" ''Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science'' 4 (1993): 445–522.

Decorations

References

External links

;Official *
Prof.Dr. A.H.G. (Alexander) Rinnooy Kan
Parlement & Politiek *
Prof.Dr. A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan (D66)
Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal {{DEFAULTSORT:Rinnooy Kan, Alexander 1949 births Living people Business educators Chairmen of the Social and Economic Council Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Democrats 66 politicians Dutch academic administrators Dutch business theorists Dutch business writers Dutch corporate directors Dutch financial writers Dutch nonprofit executives Dutch nonprofit directors Dutch trade association executives Dutch political writers Dutch technology writers Academic staff of Erasmus University Rotterdam Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Leiden University Mathematical economists Mathematics writers Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Members of the Social and Economic Council People from Bloemendaal Politicians from The Hague Rectors of universities in the Netherlands University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam 20th-century Dutch businesspeople 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch economists 20th-century Dutch educators 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century Dutch mathematicians 20th-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch businesspeople 21st-century Dutch civil servants 21st-century Dutch economists 21st-century Dutch educators 21st-century Dutch male writers 21st-century Dutch mathematicians 21st-century Dutch politicians