Gerardus Johannes (Hans) Wijers (born 1951-01-11) is the current CEO of Akzo Nobel. From 1994 until 1998 he was a minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands.
Wijers studied Economy at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, where he graduated in 1976. As assistent professor, he taught Economy at the Erasmus University, and received a doctorate for his research in industrial politics. From 1982 till 1984, Wijers worked as a civil servant at the ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and later at the ministry of Economic Affairs. Subsequently, he became organisational consultant for, among others, Bakkenist, Spits & Co.
As minister of Economic affairs from 1994 onward, he was responsible for the law change regarding the extending of shop opening hours, and the coined the Competition Regulation law. A short period he was interim minister of Finance, during illness of Gerrit Zalm, the minister at the time. Wijers completed one full four-year period of the Dutch ministerial cabinet, but chose to continue his career in consultancy, where he became senior vicepresident of the Boston Consulting Group.
Since May 2003, he is the president of the Board of Management of Akzo Nobel.
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