Jan van der Boon director of operations NWO-I
With effect from 1 September 2020, Jan van der Boon will be director of operations for the Institutes Organisation of NWO. Together with the director of NWO-I, who has yet to be appointed, he will realise the new governance model chosen for NWO-I that will form the basis for the further development of the Institutes Organisation.
Jan van der Boon has considerable experience in operational processes at universities and research institutes. He is currently director of resources at Leiden University. Previously, he was head of legal affairs and head of personnel and organisation at NWO and director of administration at CERN. Van der Boon is trained as a lawyer and is highly experienced in the field of HRM, which will help with the establishment and further development of the new NWO-I governance model.
At the end of 2019, the NWO Executive Board decided to change the governance model of NWO-I to make it more effective and decisive. Two new positions were created to better define the various roles within the Institutes Organisation: a director NWO-I and a director of operations. Strategic subjects will be discussed in the directors meeting under the leadership of the director of NWO-I, and operational aspects under the auspices of the director of operations in consultation with the institute managers.
As director of operations, Van der Boon will chair the institute managers meeting and will be responsible for managing a large part of the Utrecht office for NWO-I. Van der Boon will report to the director of NWO-I, who will be responsible for the positioning and strategy of the portfolio of NWO institutes. An appointment to this position will be announced shortly.
The position of director NWO-I office, which until 2019 was filled by Christa Hooijer, has now ceased. Since September 2019, Ed van den Berg has been interim director of NWO-I and quartermaster for the new governance structure. With the arrival of the two new directors, his work will soon be completed.