Changing of the guard on the board

Richard Devue (51) has been working for the Dutch Trade Union Confederation (FNV) since November last year, in the Pensions policy department. Affiliated unions, such as Nautilus, can call on that department when they want to appoint a new board member. Richard: “I got into pensions through various connections and was the director of the administrative office of the agricultural pension fund for about fifteen years. In my new position at FNV, I was asked by Nautilus whether I wanted to become a board member of Bpf Koopvaardij. I consider that an attractive position. My philosophy is that a pension fund has a right to exist if it has its own culture, if it stands for a group of people who share certain characteristics. I think that is genuinely the case at Bpf Koopvaardij.” He does not yet have any merchant navy experience. He smiles: “I come from Limburg, there are no sea-going vessels and seaports around there.” At the trade union

The exact opposite applies to his predecessor. Hijlke Hijlkema (73) comes from a family of seafarers, he attended the higher maritime academy and then started working in the merchant shipping industry. He had hardly set foot on board when he received the very urgent advice to join the trade union. “I had little choice”, says Hijlke, laughing. “In the end I only sailed for a short time, because after three years I switched to a job ashore, with the trade union. In the years that followed, I always remained within the sector. When I discovered that on average 20 per cent of your salary is spent on pension contributions, I became interested in pensions. Is that money well spent? One thing led to another and I found myself on the pension fund board.”