Yolande Verbeek in Executive Board of Energie Beheer Nederland

Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) is implementing a number of changes in the management of the organisation from 1 January, in line with its changing role as a public company in the energy transition. The business activities will be grouped into three business units from January: Gas transition, Heat transition and CO₂ transport & storage systems. These units will be managed from the Executive Board by a newly appointed COO. To this end, Yolande Verbeek, currently director and plant manager at Uniper, has been recruited. A fourth unit, Energy Systems, deals mainly with development and innovation on the basis of public interest, strategy implementation and research and advice to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy as policymaker and shareholder of the organisation.

Control of the organisation

During the past year, EBN has been reviewing the focus of its strategy. As a policy instrument of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, EBN is closely involved in safeguarding energy security in the Netherlands on the one hand and fulfils a public task in the acceleration of sustainability on the other. From that perspective, the structure and management of EBN’s organisation will also change with effect from January 2023. A new role is that of chief operations officer (COO). This will be filled from 1 March 2023 by Yolande Verbeek (52), who transfers from Uniper where she has served as director under the articles of association of Benelux Holding and plant manager of the Maasvlakte power plant. Yolande Verbeek will be part of the newly created Executive Board, which further consists of Jan Willem van Hoogstraten (CEO) and Bas Brouwer (CFO). Both are also currently associated with EBN.

Directors have also been appointed to the (business) units. For sustainable Gas Transition, the director is Nicolien Vrisou van Eck, for sustainable Heat Transition Herman Exalto, for CO2 transport and storage systems Berte Simons and for the Energy Systems unit Douwe van Leverink. They had all been programme managers at EBN in previous years.

Speed of thought and action

Jan Willem van Hoogstraten: “With the intensified strategic focus and organisational structure, we do justice to what is required of us as a public company in energy transition and energy supply. This provides EBN with all the tools to properly fulfil our role as a public organisation and policy instrument of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. Speed of ‘thought and action’ are key concepts here. In seven years, it will be 2030, by which time we want to have achieved the goals of the Climate Accord together. With Yolande Verbeek, we acquire a highly experienced director and COO who can make a significant contribution to this. She has proven to be a major contributor to achieving results at Uniper and, as far as I am concerned, has the energy transition in her DNA. I look forward to working with her.”

About EBN

Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) is a policy participation whose shares are wholly owned by the Dutch State. EBN deploys its knowledge, expertise and (financial) strength to make an active and significant contribution to our future sustainable energy system. Its ambition is to provide a unifying force for the energy transition and turn societal ambitions into reality. EBN fulfils this ambition with four strategic pillars: sustainable Gas System, sustainable Heat Transition, responsible CO₂ storage, and System Development in the public interest.