Gerard Johannes Kleisterlee (born 28 September 1946) is a Dutch businessman and engineer. He is the chairman of

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

, and the former president and CEO of

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 ...

Early life

Born in Germany in 1946 to Dutch and German parents, he was raised in the Netherlands. He was educated at a

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

-run Canisius College in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, followed by the

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...

, where he earned a degree in electronic engineering. He received an MBA from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Wharton Business School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

in 1991. He attended the program for executive development at the Swiss business school

International Institute for Management Development International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland specializes in executive education offering open enrollment programs for senior executives, as well as longer-term educational engage ...

(IMD) in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Career

Trained as an

electronics engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active component, active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control e ...

, like his father, he worked at Philips for almost all of his life. From 1981 to 1986 he was general manager of Philips' Professional Audio Product Group. Kleisterlee joined Philips Components in 1986. After becoming general manager of Philips Display Components for Europe. He was appointed Managing Director of Philips Display Components Worldwide in 1994. He became president of Philips Taiwan and Regional Manager for Philips Components in Asia-Pacific in 1996. From September 1997 through June 1998 he was also responsible for all the activities of the Philips Group in China. He served on the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers from 1998 to 2005. He was determined not only to transform Philips' image with consumers but also turn it into a high-growth, high-tech company, something that more than 10 years of restructuring, under two predecessors, failed to do. As

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

he: *Replaced all of the top executives at Philips' American consumer-electronics division *Outsourced the production of mobile phone handsets and

VCR A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...

s *Slashed overhead *Forced divisions to share services to achieve cost savings *Spun off the volatile semiconductors business into a separate entity

NXP Semiconductors NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXP) is a Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company employs approximately 31,000 people in more than 30 countries. NXP reported revenue of $11.06 billion in 2 ...

, and then sold a controlling 80.1% stake to a consortium of

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

investors He was succeeded by

Frans van Houten François Adrianus "Frans" van Houten (born 26 April 1960) is a Dutch businessman. He served as the CEO of Philips, Royal Philips Electronics (known universally as Philips) from 1 April 2011 to 16 August 2022. He succeeded Gerard Kleisterlee. B ...

as CEO of Philips in April 2011. A director of

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, Kleisterlee was nominated as the successor at

to chairman John Bond in January 2011, a position he assumed in July 2011. He was awarded an Honorary doctorate from the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

in 2005. He was named 2006 Europe Businessman of the Year by ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...

''."Europe Businessman of the Year: Kleisterlee, Philips CEO"
, cnn.com; accessed 10 March 2017.

Personal life

He is married, with three children.

References

External links

Philips biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleisterlee, Gerard 1946 births Living people People from Eindhoven Dutch chief executives in the technology industry Dutch chief executives in the manufacturing industry Dutch corporate directors Dutch engineers Dutch businesspeople Philips employees Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Vodafone people