Hein Schreuder passed away last Sunday, May 28th, at the age of 71. Schreuder held various academic and managerial positions in the Netherlands and abroad.
He graduated in business economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1976, before starting his research career at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 1984, he was appointed professor of business economics, strategy, and organizations at Maastricht University.
In the early 1990s, Schreuder joined DSM, a formerly state-owned coal mining company that by that time had grown into a company whose revenues came mainly from chemical production. As DSM’s director of corporate strategy and acquisitions for two decades, Schreuder was one of the architects of the chemical company’s radical transformation into fine chemicals, biotechnology, and high-performance materials.
After leaving DSM at the end of 2011, he was associated with the Vlerick Business School in Belguim, among other teaching positions, and until May last year, he was chairman of the research and consulting firm Ecorys.
Shreuder also wrote 8 books and multiple academic publications in the fields of business economics, strategic management, and economic organization theory. The best known are “Economic Approaches to Organizations” of 1991, “From Coal to Biotech” of 2015, and “People, Planet, Profit and Purpose: from PhD to DSM Practice” of 2022.
As a result of his contribution to both his country, and the corporate world in 2016 he was invested as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
The International Academy of Management recognizes Hein Schreuder’s significant contribution to both DSM and the improvement of corporate governance of companies globally through his expertise and research, and deeply regrets his passing by sending the deepest condolences to his family and friends.