Roel Bekker Secretary-General for the Reform of the Dutch Government

Roel Bekker is Secretary-General for the Reform of the Dutch Government. He leads an ambitious Reform Program aimed to reduce the size and to improve the quality of the Dutch government.

Roel Bekker will outline the background, management, critical success-factors and  progress so far of the Reform Program. He will also take into account the dilemmas the Dutch government faces today such as the (future) role of civil servants, the relationship between civil servants and politicians, and the use of IT to increase the performance of government.

Graduating from Law in 1970 at the University of Groningen, Mr. Bekker began his career in  the Dutch government in the Ministry for Housing, Physical Planning and Environment where he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General in 1985. In 1998 he was appointed as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Between 1992 and 1998 he was senior-partner of Twynstra Gudde Management Consultants. Roel Bekker is also Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Leiden.

Date: 31st March 2010
Time: 18:00 - 19:30

Update

To read more about the possible lessons of the Dutch experience, download a copy of Roel Bekker's speech (PDF, 93K)

Click to view an interview with Roel Bekker by Adrian Brown, Fellow at Institute for Government.