2009

The John Adams Institute Annual report 2009

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The John Adams Institute Annual report 2009

Table of contents: 3 - Mission Statement 4 - Note from the Director 7 - Events 23 - Other Activities 28 - Awards 31 - Support 33 - Publicity 34 - Staff and Volunteers 35 - Board of Directors 37 - West-Indisch Huis 38 - 2009 Attendance 40 - In the Press 42 - Corporate Sponsors & Friends 44 - Finance

2 The John Adams Institute - West-Indisch Huis, Herenmarkt 97, 1013 EC Amsterdam – The Netherlands Tel. +31(0)20-624 72 80 - Fax. +31(0)20-638 11 45 – [email protected] - www.john-adams.nl

Mission Statement The mission of the John Adams Institute is to provide a window onto the United States for Dutch audiences. Our main way of carrying this out is by bringing notable Americans--novelists, politicians, historians, scientists, screenwriters, poets--to the Netherlands, and having them talk about their work and their insights. We believe in discussion and debate. We believe in words and thoughts. And we believe in the power and value of real-life encounters. We don’t see ourselves as a “patriotic” organization, which waves a little American flag and tries to promote America. Rather, we believe that the United States is so big, so teeming, so powerful, so complex, so full of life and creativity and violence and confusion, that everyone-Americans included--needs to continually study what it is. Further, there is a unique connection between the United States and the Netherlands. For it was the Dutch who founded a colony, based on Manhattan Island, which gave rise to New York. The Dutch melting pot of the seventeenth century spawned New York City and also the American melting pot. America, therefore, has Dutch roots. And America’s most vital elements--its mixed society and its free trade ethic— originate in those Dutch beginnings. It is all the more appropriate, then, that, with immigration, diversity, and national identity being central topics of debate in the Netherlands, we bring American perspectives to the Dutch.

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A note from the director The year 2009 marked the four hundredth anniversary of the voyage of Englishman Henry Hudson to what he hoped would be the Far East. Why, one might reasonably wonder, would such an event provide an excuse for a year-long celebration of Dutch-American relations--in which the John Adams Institute played an important part? The answer turns out to be simple enough. Hudson sailed, in 1609, for a Dutch company, so the lands he charted would be claimed by the Dutch Republic. And rather than find a route to Asia, Hudson wound up charting and exploring the area that would become New York and New Jersey. Based on his voyage, the Dutch colony of New Netherland would come into being, with its capital of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The Dutch colony--multiethnic and freetrading--would form the template for New York, and it would also provide genetic material for the American melting pot. That, then, is reason enough for a year-long celebration. And the coincidental fact that I wrote a book about the Dutch founding of New York gave us at the John Adams Institute further reason to fit our programming for the year around the historical theme. One of the two bookends of our year took place on April 4, the exact day that Hudson set sail from Amsterdam, when we organized a Town Hall Meeting at the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. It featured author Geert Mak, Dutch Minister for European Affairs Frans Timmermans, U.S. Consul General Marjorie Ames, Sam Roberts of the New York Times, Beth Fertig of WNYC Radio in New York, Dutch Americanist Ruth Oldenziel, myself, and NOVA host Twan Huys as moderator. The hall was full, the event was lively. We were lucky enough to have a contingent of Mohawk Indians visiting, and they contributed a vital element as we explored history and the themes of immigration and diversity. The other side of the celebration came in September, when the entire John Adams Institute family--staff, board members and partners--decamped to New York City. We took part in lectures and events that included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima, all of which reflected on the Amsterdam-New Amsterdam connection. Somehow, with all of this going on, we also managed to put together a full slate of “regular” speakers--by which I mean internationally renowned novelists, historians, journalists and others. Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, Marvin Hamlisch...well, I won’t give the whole list, since the details are in the following pages. Suffice to say the John Adams Institute spent 2009 as it had previous years, bringing some of the best and brightest American minds to Dutch audiences. It’s a long and fruitful connection between two countries. And we have the Englishman Henry Hudson to thank for it.

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South Street Seaport Museum: Frans Timmermans, Russell Shorto, Astrid Hertog (Nationaal Archief), Prince Willem Alexander, Princess Maxima.

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Prince Willem Alexander, Princess Maxima, Russell Shorto, Frans Timmermans.

Russell Shorto, Prince Willem Alexander, Princess Maxima, Maxime Verhagen (Dutch Foreign Minister, Martin Berendse (Director Nationaal Archief)

Russell Shorto, Prince Willem Alexander, Princess Maxima, Astrid Hertog (Nationaal Archief)

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Events

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Malcolm Gladwell DATE: 30 January 2009 LOCATION: Aula University of Amsterdam What if the Beatles had never gone to Hamburg in 1960? Would they have become a sensation? What if Bill Gates had been born five years later? Would he have revolutionalized the world? Excellence, we often think, comes from practice. But Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer for The New Yorker and bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, took the John Adams Institute podium to make a very different case. In Outliers: The Story of Success he shows why people often waste their talent, and how culture, family, time and place are essential ingredients of success. MODERATOR Joris Luyendijk IN COOPERATION WITH Contact publishers EVENT SPONSORING BY Twynstra & Gudde PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Stewart O’Nan DATE: 10 February 2009 LOCATION: The Movies, Amsterdam Winter is cold in Butler, Pennsylvania. The characters in O’Nan’s atmospheric novel Snow Angels interact like snowflakes: in a swirl of love and pain and coincidence. At the center is a boy named Arthur, whose parents’ marriage is collapsing and whose former babysitter is murdered. In 2008, the book became a Hollywood film starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. In this very special event, the John Adams Institute hosted author O’Nan and presented the Dutch première of the film. MODERATOR Russell Shorto IN COOPERATION WITH Cossee publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Michael Pollan DATE: 11 February 2009 LOCATION: De Duif, Amsterdam Never has so much attention been paid to what we eat. It’s strange, then, that a lot of what we eat is not actually food but, according to Michael Pollan, “edible food-like substances—no longer the products of nature but of food science.” The irony, which Pollan detailed in his latest book, In Defense of Food, is that “the more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become.” MODERATOR Tracy Metz IN COOPERATION WITH Arbeiderspers publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Joseph O’Neill DATE: 13 March 2009 at 8pm LOCATION: West Indisch Huis, Amsterdam Joseph O’Neill was born in Ireland, raised in the Netherlands, educated in England, and lives in New York. His award-winning novel, Netherland, reflects his background, as well as his passion for cricket. Its hero is a Dutchman who immerses himself into New York’s 21st century multiethnic society. Netherland, with its unapologetically philosophical wandering, was one of the most highly praised novels of the year, and O’Neill himself a one-man link between Dutch and American societies. MODERATOR Julie Phillips IN COOPERATION WITH De Bezige Bij publishers PHOTOs Chris van Houts This was the first event in our New America Series, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Town Hall Meeting featuring:

Geert Mak & Russell Shorto DATE: 4 April 2009 at 8pm LOCATION: Westerkerk, Amsterdam On April 4, 2009 it was exactly 400 years ago that English sea captain Henry Hudson set sail from Amsterdam, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, to find a short route to Asia. Instead, he found Manhattan, and the future New York. This special event celebrated the 400-year relationship between the Netherlands and the U.S., and especially between Amsterdam and New Amsterdam—that is, New York. The meeting featured talks by Geert Mak and Russell Shorto, the presentation of the book they co-wrote for the event (1609: The Forgotten History of Hudson, Amsterdam and New York), as well as a discussion including Frans Timmermans (Minister for European Affairs), Marjorie Ames (US Consul-General), Sam Roberts (New York Times reporter), Ruth Oldenziel (American specialist at Eindhoven University) and Beth Fertig (WNYC Radio). MODERATOR Twan Huys IN COOPERATION WITH Stichting Henry Hudson 400 Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken Gemeente Amsterdam PHOTOS Gerrit Serné

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Twan Huys, (NOVA)

Sam Roberts (New York Times reporter)

Ruth Oldenziel (American specialist at Eindhoven University)

1609: The voyage of Henry Hudson

Marjorie Ames (US Consul-General in Amsterdam)

Russell Shorto & Geert Mak, co-wrote 1609: The Forgotten History of

Hudson, Amsterdam and New York

Audience

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New York Perspectives DATE: 13 May 2009 LOCATION: Stadsarchief Amsterdam Amsterdam discovered by New York photographers:

- Carl Wooley - Gus Powell - Richard Rothman - Joshua Lutz Introduction Tracy Metz IN COOPERATION WITH Stadsarchief Amsterdam Foam, Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam

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Nobel Prize Winner

Toni Morrison DATE: 20 May 2009 – 8pm LOCATION: Aula of the University of Amsterdam One of the most important American writers of her generation took the John Adams Institute stage for the first time. Toni Morrison—as renowned for her magical realism as for her portrayal of the African American struggle—is that rare writer who is acclaimed by critics and adored by the reading public. In her latest novel, A Mercy, a mother gives away her daughter as she struggles for a better life, and the reader unravels the meaning behind seemingly cruel acts. The Nobel Prize committee wrote about Toni Morrison: “…in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, [she] gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." MODERATOR Bas Heijne IN COOPERATION WITH De Bezige Bij publishers EVENT SPONSOR Ahold PHOTOS Roberto Bourgonjen

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Amy Chua DATE: 27 May 2009 LOCATION: Universiteit van Utrecht, Utrecht The Persian dynasties, the Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, the United States of America: all of these hyperpowers grew to world dominance at a time when they had high concentrations of minorities. Each admitted people who had been persecuted or cast off. And each profited from them. So said Amy Chua in her latest book Day of Empire:

How Hyper Powers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall. Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, took the John Adams Institute stage to argue that this acceptance of cultural diversity is precisely the secret of the success of these powers. She also gave her original insights into present-day international relations. MODERATOR Kustaw Bessems IN COOPERATION WITH Studium Generale Utrecht Nieuw-Amsterdam publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts This was the second event in our New America Series, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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David Leavitt DATE: 16 June 2009 LOCATION: Posthoornkerk, Amsterdam Born in Pittsburgh, educated at Yale, David Leavitt has been grouped with the likes of Edmund White as a writer who has “made art out of previously repressed and unnarrated areas of homoerotic experience.” He is also drawn to history. His latest novel, The Indian Clerk, takes place in the early 20th century and revolves around the relationship between the brilliant mathematicians G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. "Mathematics and its paradoxes provide a deep vein of metaphor that Leavitt uses to superb effect, demonstrating how the most meaningful relationships can defy both logic and imagination,” said The New Yorker. MODERATOR Tim Overdiek IN COOPERATION WITH De Harmonie publishers PHOTOS Gerrit Serné

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David Simon DATE: Wednesday 30 Sept. 2009 LOCATION: The Movies, Amsterdam More than a few critics have called The Wire, the hit U.S. series about crime in Baltimore, the best TV show of the year. David Simon, its creator, began his career as a crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he gleaned details of the city’s seamy side. Using this material, he produced a series of bestselling books-including Homicide, which is now out in Dutch--and top TV series. The Wire intricately integrates lives (detectives, drug dealers, union bosses), uses local non-actors and almost no flashbacks, to create a gritty symphonic structure. Simon himself once said it is really “about how we live together.” In this first airing of the show in the Netherlands, David Simon took us scene by scene through an episode of what one newspaper called “broadcast literature.” MODERATOR Britt Stubbe IN COOPERATION WITH Ambo Anthos publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Said Sayrafiezadeh DATE: Thursday 1 Oct. 2009 LOCATION: Bethaniënklooster, Amsterdam Say you grew up in 1970s and 1980s America. Say your father was Iranian and your mother was Jewish. Say both were radical members of the Socialist Workers Party, who cared more about handing out political leaflets than taking care of you. What would you do? If you were Saїd Sayrafiezadeh, you would write an exotic, elegant, only-in-America memoir. When Skateboards Will Be Free charts his life in Brooklyn and Pittsburgh and a childhood of struggle, poverty and absurdity, as he is forced to dutifully rebel against capitalist society. “Its language has the fierceness and humor of a Charles Dickens story about childhood,” one critic wrote. Saïd Sayrafiezadeh guided us through his outlandish variation on the immigrant experience.

MODERATOR Bahram Sadeghi IN COOPERATION WITH J.M. Meulenhoff publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Christopher Caldwell DATE: 16 October 2009 LOCATION: OBA, Theater van het woord, Amsterdam As a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and a contributor to The Financial Times, Christopher Caldwell is a Young Turk (if one can apply the term) in the American conservative movement. His provocative arguments have covered everything from California’s budget crisis to intellectual property rights in France. In 2005 he published a laudatory article about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which brought her to American awareness. Caldwell defended the thesis of his new book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, that Islam is threatening Europe’s cultural foundations. MODERATOR Joris Luyendijk IN COOPERATION WITH Ambo Anthos publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts This was the third event in our

New America Series, sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Marvin Hamlisch DATE: 20 October 2009 LOCATION: Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam Marvin Hamlisch is the maestro of American music. As a composer, he has scored everything from Woody Allen films to James Bond movies to A Chorus Line and The Sting. His latest film is The Informant, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon. With three Oscar awards, four Grammy awards, four Emmys, three Golden Globes, a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize, Hamlisch is the most acclaimed living composer. He is also an accomplished pianist and a great showman in his own right. In this very special event, Marvin Hamlisch guided the John Adams Institute audience through the making of a musical. INTERVIEWER Henk van Gelder MUSICAL THEATER SINGER Lara Grünfeld IN COOPERATION WITH AEGON PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Jane Alison DATE: 3 December 2009 LOCATION: de Balie, Amsterdam The acclaimed American novelist Jane Alison has written a memoir of her exotic childhood, and done so, in the words of the Boston Globe, “with the insight of a novelist and the language of a poet.” It is a story—involving double spouse-swapping among diplomats, daughters who were mirror images of one another, and ultimately tragedy—that Alison originally tried to cast into fiction but found she couldn’t: truth was stronger, stranger, more biting. The Sisters Antipodes has received international acclaim and has also been turned into a mini-opera. This was an insightful evening with the author of what the Philadelphia Inquirer called “a groundbreaking, stellar memoir.” MODERATOR Britt Stubbe IN COOPERATION WITH Arena Publishers PHOTOS Chris van Houts

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Other activities

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The Island A digital-historical adventure about the relationship between New York and Amsterdam As part of the Hudson 400 Festivities, the John Adams Institute and the Waag Society created The Island, an urban mobile game that connected students in Amsterdam and New York in real time. By becoming 17th century merchants equipped with 21st century technology, the students immersed themselves in the history that links both cities. The two-hour game started with a short introduction. Students were divided into teams. Each team received a historic map of the city, a cell phone with internet and GPS technology and a market price chart. The goal was to navigate through the city, buying and selling goods with teams on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The game required strategy. The goal: to end up with as many guilders as possible. The ultimate aim: to appreciate how complex the world of the 17th century was, and how intriciately woven together the two cities of Amsterdam and New Amsterdam were.

Production The John Adams Institute The Waag Society

Special thanks to Jaap Jacobs, historian The Gemeente Amsterdam

Additional support by The Netherland-America Foundation in New York

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The Quincy Club A Younger Perspective: The Quincy Club is part of our ongoing effort to help young audiences better understand American culture. The Club's activities take students into an interactive new learning environment through American history, literature and art. Theme

The History of American Immigration and Integration Lectures given by America expert Frans Verhagen. Schools 2009 09 Nov - Scala College, Alphen ad Rijn 09 Nov - Gymnasium Camphusianum, Gorinchum 10 Nov - Piter Jelles Gymnasium, Leeuwarden 12 Nov - Aloysius College, Den Haag 12 Nov - Rijswijks Lyceum, Rijswijk 13 Nov - Cygnus Gymnasium, Amsterdam 16 Nov - Theresiaslyceum, Tilburg 16 Nov - Pius X, Bladel 19 Nov - Laar & Berg, Laren 19 Nov - Calandlyceum, Amsterdam 20 Nov - 4e Gymnasium, Amsterdam 23 Nov - R.S.G. Wolfsbos, Hoogeveen 23 Nov - Almere College, Dronten 24 Nov - Coenecoop College, Waddinxveen 24 Nov - Stedelijk Dalton Lyceum, Dordrecht 01 Dec - Scholengemeenschap Stevensbeek 01 Dec - Raayland College, Venray 02 Dec - St Jan's Lyceum, 's-Hertogenbosch 02 Dec - Jeroen Bosch College, 's-Hertogenbosch 03 Dec - Titus Brandsma Lyceum, Oss

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Awards

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New York City On September 2009 our director, Russell Shorto, was named Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau, in recognition of his work in promoting the Dutch role in American history.

F.l.t.r. Gajus Scheltema (Dutch Consul General in New York, Frans Timmermans (Dutch Minister of European Affairs), Russell Shorto.

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Support As a nonprofit organization, the John Adams Institute has been ahead of its time in the sense that, ever since its launch in 1987, it has depended heavily on the private sector. We are fortunate to benefit from a number of public sector grants and funding sources. Also this year we received a very generous donation from the Holland America Friendship Foundation.

Publishers

De Arbeiderspers

J.M. Meulenhoff

Other supporters

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Photo: Chris van Houts Malcolm Gladwell event: 30 January 2009 - Aula, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Becoming a Sponsor or Friend of the John Adams Institute brings a company or individual with interest in the United States into an eclectic community which includes politicians, entrepreneurs, writers, artists, journalists, professors and publishers. Indeed, our audiences and network of supporters include people of accomplishments that rival those of our speakers. Our Sponsors and Friends tell us they find value in their affiliation in various ways, whether by inviting clients to hear a Nobel Prize winner or former U.S. Secretary of State in an intimate setting or by mingling at our receptions. Many times a corporation will approach us asking to sponsor an individual event; this gives them a large block of seats and the chance to use a reception— with the featured speaker— as a special occasion for their members or customers. In 2009, we gained the following corporate friends: - De Baak - Fortis - Heineken For a complete List of Corporate Friends & Sponsors for 2009, see page 43.

Sometimes supporters indicate from the beginning that their contribution will be limited to a certain time period. We wish to thank the following departing Friends for their generous support in past years: Amsterdam Institute of Finance; AON; Boer &Croon; Corporate Express; Philips Electronics; Provincie Zuid-Holland; Sara Lee International; Wolters Kluwer. Contributions per calendar year: - Corporate Friends: €2000 - Personal Friend: €1500 - President’s Club: €500 - Patron: €65 - Member: €25 We currently have 1218 members. Of these, 17 are members of the JAI President’s Club: R.M. Amato, K.A. van den Broek-Kohlstrand, A. Croiset Van Uchelen, R. Donehoo, R.W.H. Groen, P.J. Gunn, C. &. D. Harple, L. Kaplanian, S.W. Khan, W. Knibbeler, A. Korijn, D.S. Macy, W. van RoijenVan Nispen, H. & K. Pabbruwe, H.O.C.R. Ruding, F. Schaik, M. Schuit- Williams, W.F.C. StevensMullens, F. Warmelink, A.C. Westbroek.

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News card The John Adams Institute American Culture in The Netherlands

West Indisch Huis Herenmarkt 97 1013 EC Amsterdam The Netherlands [email protected] www.john-adams.nl

We are an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to presenting some of the most compelling speakers in the world to European audiences. From poetry to political debate, film Folder to finance, hyperpower hegemony to hip-hop hype, each of our events lights up a different part of the endlessly complex, constantly shifting cultural landscape of the U.S.A.

Website

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Staff

Volunteers Project Volunteers Miriam van der Meij Sara Grasman Kiekie Pabbruwe

The Island The Quincy Club Ambassador The Hague

Event Volunteers Director:

Russell Shorto

Program administrator:

Maarten van Essen

Heather Gould Liesbeth van den Heijden Naomi Kamphuijs Veronika Kovacsova Ellen Kroese-Kane Gerard Kroese Jaime Kyres Richard Nyaku Kiekie Pabbruwe Rebecca Sakoun Yvonne Veger Alex Verdegaal

Event coordinator: Cobie Ivens

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Board of Directors

Marry de Gaaij Fortman

- Chair

She graduated in 1988 from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Since then she has worked as a lawyer with Houthoff Buruma. In 1997 she was named partner and from 2001 until 2007 she was Managing Partner at this firm. Alongside her daily tasks, she also works as a mediator (affiliated with the Dutch Mediation Institute, NMI and the International Mediation Institute, IMI) and contributes regularly to roundtable discussions on leadership, management and diversity. Marry de Gaay Fortman holds various additional functions, she is Chair of the supervisory board of AMREF Flying Doctors, member of the supervisory board of the Nederlands Dans Theater and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, is a member of the Commission to promote sound management and integrity in Public Broadcasting, and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Dutch Care Authority.

Evert van den Bergh - Treasurer Until 2002 he served on the board of management at ExxonMobil Benelux, with contact responsibility in the area of financial affairs. After his retirement he was appointed in 2004 to the Supervisory Board of Esso Nederland. Among his many other activities, Mr. van den Bergh held the post of Director for Strategy and Policy at Delft University of Technology. He is treasurer of the Dutch String Quartet Academy, and a member of the Gasunie pension fund investment advisory board. Since 2003 he has served as a mediator for ACB, an intermediary organization dedicated to dispute resolution. In 2003 Mr. van den Bergh was appointed a member of the Committee set up to adjudicate and allocate non-personal claims to Jewish funds relating to damages sustained in World War II and released by the Dutch government, banks and the stock exchange. In recent years he has held interim director positions at two Dutch symphony orchestras.

Arie Westerlaken - Secretary He was Philips' Chief Legal Officer and a member of the Group Management Committee. He joined the company’s legal department in the Netherlands in 1973 and was appointed General Counsel to Philips Japan in 1979. After six years in Japan and five years with the Corporate Legal Department in Eindhoven, he left the company in 1990 to become Director of Legal Affairs for DAF Trucks. Returning to Philips in 1994, he was appointed Director of Legal Affairs. He became Chief Legal Officer of Philips on April 1, 1996, Secretary of the Board of Management in July 1997 and a member of the Group Management Committee on May 1, 1998. Mr. Westerlaken was born in 1946 and graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Utrecht. He is 35 married with two children.

Chris Kijne VPRO broadcaster and journalist. He started as a print journalist but later switched to radio, both as a domestic and foreign reporter. The last decade he was one of the anchors for the VPRO broadcasts on Radio 1, the national news-channel. He also works for television, making documentaries and most recently with a series of extensive interviews for both the digital channel HollandDoc and the in investigative program Tegenlicht. Among his guests were Salman Rushdie, Madeleine Albright, Elie Wiesel, Amos Oz and Amartya Sen. He also moderates events of the Institute.

Tracy Metz Tracy Metz, a native of California, is a journalist with NRC Handelsblad. She writes regularly about architecture, urbanism and landscape and has written a number of books, including Snelweg: Highways in the Netherlands and FUN! Leisure and Landscape. Her most recent book is Huis in Frankrijk: Nederlanders en hun maison de campagne. She is also a international correspondent for the American magazine Architectural Record and a visiting Fellow at Harvard University. For the John Adams Institute, where she has been a member of the board since 2004, she also regularly moderates evenings with authors.

Pim Roest Pim Roest joined PriceWaterhouseCoopers as Partner in Advisory in 2009 leading the Energy, Utilities and Mining practice. He graduated as Master of Science in Business Administration specializing in Strategy and Finance from the Erasmus Universiteit. He also studied International Business at the Stockholm School of Economics and has worked in the corporate strategy department of Shell in Sweden. Since 1993 he worked in the business strategy units of KPMG Management Consulting and Nolan, Norton & Co. in The Netherlands. He transferred to Australia and was based in the Asia Pacific region between 1996 and 2003 before returning to BearingPoint Europe to start the new Netherlands office. He led the development and growth of the practice as Managing Director and Country leader until 2009. He has a passion for culture, traveling, modern art and good food and wine.

Truus Valkering Truus Valkering graduated from the Gemeente Universiteit Amsterdam in 1983. She then worked as a company lawyer with Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken. Since 2001 she has been a management team member of Corus Strip Products IJmuiden and Director of Communications and Public Affairs of Corus Netherlands. She is also chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Rabobank NoordKennemerland, member of the Supervisory Board of Ontwikkelingsbedrijf Noordholland Noord, chairwoman of VNO Communicatie and boardmember of the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam.

Jeannette Sanders For many years Jeannette Sanders co-hosted our fundraising receptions, lectures and dinners. She left the JAI board in 2009.

HONORARY BOARD

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

John H. Bryan - former CEO, Sara Lee Corp, Chicago K. Terry Dornbush - US Ambassador to the Netherlands, 1994-1998 Cynthia P. Schneider - US Ambassador to the Netherlands, 1998-2001 Clifford M. Sobel - US Ambassador to the Netherlands, 2001-2005

B. C. Alexander - former Director McKinsey & Co J.M. Hessels - Chairman NYSE EuroNext C.J.A. van Lede - former Chairman Akzo Nobel A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan - Chairman SER H.O.C.R. Ruding - former Minister of Finance Anne Wertheim - former Director John Adams Institute

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West-Indisch huis Where Amsterdam Meets New York Two great institutions owe their existence to Amsterdam's historic West Indisch Huis: the city of New York and the John Adams Institute. It was here in the headquarters of the Dutch West-Indische Compagnie that two historic decisions were made: to establish a Dutch trading base in the New World on the island of Manhattan, and, centuries later, to create an institution dedicated to transatlantic cultural exchange. After periods as an orphanage, retirement home and warehouse, the West Indisch Huis was renovated in the 1980s. In 1987 it became the home and symbol of The John Adams Institute.

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2009 Attendance Invitations

Members

Patrons

Discounts

Non member

Free e.d.

Others

Sub total

Malcolm Gladwell

53

111

50

22

166

6

131

539

10-Feb

Stewart O'Nan

23

51

20

6

18

5

4

127

3

11-Feb

Michael Pollan

38

35

16

9

128

9

157

392

4

13-Mar

38

79

6

-

10

5

11

149

#

DATE

WRITER

1

30-Jan

2

Joseph O'Neill

The New America Series Town Hall Meeting Geert Mak & Russell Shorto

5

4-Apr

Henry Hudson Sets Sail

116

192

44

50

161

40

169

772

6

20-May

Toni Morison

111

185

28

80

140

15

11

570

7

27-May

The New America Series

4

-

-

-

-

105

2

111

8

16-Jun

David Leavitt

5

39

5

3

17

25

5

99

9

30-Sep

David Simon

34

63

5

14

52

4

172

10

1-Oct

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

19

29

9

6

3

3

3

72

11

16-Oct

The New America Series

31

29

8

59

17

7

151

12

20-Oct

Marvin Hamlisch

30

32

90

321

13

3-Dec

Jane Alison

12

29

10

1

3

11

514

842

201

191

757

273

Amy Chua

Christopher Caldwell

TOTAL

66 594

3541

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30-Jan-09, Aula Universiteit van Amsterdam

photo: Chris van Houts

30-Jan-2009, Aula Universiteit van Amsterdam - photo: Chris van Houts

30-Sep-09, The Movies, Amsterdam


11-Feb-09, de Duif, Amsterdam


20-Oct-09, Muziekgebouw aan ‘tIJ, Amsterdam


4-Apr-09, Westerkerk, Amsterdam

photo: Gerrit Serné

39 1-Oct-09, Bethaniënklooster, Amsterdam


13-Mar-09, West-Indisch Huis, Amsterdam

photo:Hollandse Hoogte

In the Press

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Corporate Sponsors & Private Friends 2009 The Friends of the John Adams Institute are directors of American companies based in the Netherlands and top executives of Dutch companies with significant interests in the United States of America.

Corporate Sponsors

HAFF Holland America Friendship Foundation

Additional Supporters Boekhandel Athenaeum

Private Friends T. Dornbush, former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands K.J. Storm, former CEO AEGON

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Corporate Friends Ahold Amsterdam Foreign Investment Office Amsterdam Institute of Finance AON Groep Nederland Baker & McKenzie Bank Insinger de Beaufort BearingPoint Boekhandel Van Rossum Boer & Croon Booz Allen Hamilton Corporate Express Citibank International Clifford Chance Esso Nederland Fortis Fugro Greenberg & Traurig Houthoff Buruma ING Groep McKinsey & Co. Mees Pierson, Private Wealth Management Nyenrode Business Universiteit Philips Electronics PricewaterhouseCoopers Provincie Zuid-Holland Rabobank Resources Global Professionals Sara Lee International Siemens Stichting SNS REAAL Fonds Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers Unilever Weekblad Pers Groep Wolters Kluwer

Wakkie, P.N. Meer, H.I. van der Childers, B. Steen, J.W.Th. v d Scheer, E.T.H. Kantor, I.R. Roest, P. Johnson, Ms. B. Groot, E.P. de Mensing, P.B. Ventress, P. Boom, P.F. Eijsbouts, Ch.J.R. Baeckelmans, N. Lanschot F.J. van Jonkman, A. Jong, W. de Bosman, J. Hommen, J. Reibestein, R.W.P. Kok, B. Tebbe, F. Sivignon, J.P. Swaak, R. Dijk, J.W.A. Heggeler, R.H.L. Ten Bruin, R.C. Kennett, B. Pernis, M.C.J. van Verburg, J.H. Dam, E. van Waaij, K. van der Clement, K. McKinstry, Ms. N.

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Finance

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