Wall of fame

The EFR strives to inspire students. We do this by inviting all sorts of speakers to our events. These people range from worldwide political leaders to captains of industry and visit a range of events of the EFR. 

World Leader Cycle award

During the EFR Business Week we proudly present an award to a world leader with extraordinary accomplishments. Prominent leaders that stood out because of their actions in the field of politics or society are considered for the award, which is presented by the EFR on behalf of both students and the faculty.

  • François Hollande

    President of France 2012 - 2017. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2018. view more
  • Mr. Ban Ki-Moon

    Secretary-General of the United Nations 2007-2016. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2016. view more
    Being the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations gives the power to change our world. This change is visible in the fields of women’s rights,where he empowered women all around the world significantly. Furthermore, he worked hard to stabilise the political situation in several countries.
  • Herman van Rompuy

    President of the European Union 2009-2014. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2012. view more
    The award was granted for his outstanding achievements as the former Belgian Prime Minister and Treasury Secretary. We admire the way he dealt with the budgetary deficit and how he brought calmness within the Belgian politics. He faced challenges when he was the first President of the European Council, like the the financial crisis and the unification of Europe. Dealing with so many different political interests is an outstanding performance and requires a strong leader.
  • Andrius Kubilius

    Prime Minister of Lithuania 1999-2000 and 2008-2012. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2012. view more
    During the housing bubble Mr Kubilius prevented the country from going bankrupt and without the help of the IMF programme, unlike many other countries. Mr Kubilius had to take far-reaching austerity measures. He had to severely cut public spending and raise taxes to prevent Lithuania from bankruptcy. He did not forget his own salary; he took a pay cut of 45%.
  • Jakob Kellenberger

    President of the International Committee of the Red Cross 2000-2012. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2011. view more
    The Red Cross has saved the lives of many people, and brings back hope to those who lost everything. The outstanding achievements of the Red Cross, during Jakob Kellenbergers time as President, serves as a great source of inspiration to the students of this university.
  • Anders Fogh Rasmussen

    Secretary General of NATO 2009-2014. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2010. view more
    His leadership as secretary general of NATO serves as an inspiration to all students. His time as secretary general is characterized by decisiveness and acknowledgeable changes in NATO-strategy, which is reflected in the way NATO is currently dealing with the situation in Libya.
  • Pascal Lamy

    Director General of the World Trade Organisation 2005-2013. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 2009. view more
    Lamy was active in the European Committee before becoming the Director General of the World Trade Organisation. He was active as the European Commissioner for Trade from 1999 until 2004.
  • Boutros Boutros-Ghali

    Secretary-General of the United Nations 1992-1997. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 2008. view more
    Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali served as the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1977 until 1991. After that, he served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1992 until 1996. Boutros-Ghali oversaw the UN at a time when it dealt with several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan Genocide.
  • Fredrik Reinfeldt

    Prime minister of Sweden 2006-2014. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 2007. view more
    Fredrik Reinfeldt served nearly 8 years as the prime minister of Sweden. During his time as prime minister, Sweden would emerge as one of the top countries in public finance and achieve top rankings in climate and health care. Next to being a politician, Reinfeldt also is active as an economist and lecturer.
  • José Manuel Barroso

    Chairman of the European Commission 2004-2014. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 2006 view more
    Mister Barroso is a Portugese policitian from the Labour party in Portugal. He studied law in Lisbon. He was prime minister of Portugal from 2002 till 2004. In 2004 he became the new chairman of the European Commission. After his work as chairman of the European Commission he became the non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs.
  • Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

    Secretary General of NATO 2004 - 2009. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 2005. view more
    Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was a prominent member of the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) political party and served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Cabinet Balkenende I and Balkenende II. After these Dutch political roles, he was selected as the new Secretary General of NATO, where he served from 5 January 2005 until 1 August 2009.
  • Benjamin Netanyahu

    Prime Minister of Israel 1996 - 1999, 2009 - current. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 2004. view more
    The longest serving Prime Minister in Israeli history, Benjamin Netanyahu has an impressive list of political functions in Isreal. Starting out as a military commando, Netanyahu quickly rose to different political positions. He eventually became Prime Minister from 1996 until 1999 and again from 2009 onwards.
  • Yasser Arafat

    Leader of Palestina and received the Nobel Peace Price in 1994. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 1998. view more
    Yasser Arafat was the leader of Palestina from 1964 to 2004. He received the Nobel Peace Price after the Oslo agreement in 1994. In this agreement the state of Israel and Palestina tried to work on a peace agreement. But after all the effort there is still not a Palestinian State.
  • John Nash jr.

    Nobel price winning mathematician and well known in the economic field. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 1998. view more
    Nash was born in 1928 in Bluefield, West Virginia. His theories are widely used in economics. He made a fundamental contribution to game theory, differential geometry and the study of partial differential equations. He received the nobel memorial prize in economic siences in 1994.
  • Helmut Kohl

    Chancellor of Germany 1982-1998. Received the World Leader Cycle Award in 1997. view more
    Helmut Kohl was the chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998. He was chairman of the CDU from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure was the longest of any democratic chosen German Chancellor. Kohl oversaw the end of the Cold War and is widely regarded as the main architect of the German reunification. Kohl is considered to be the architect of the Maastricht Treaty.
  • Mikhail Gorbachev

    President of the Soviet Union 1990-1991. Received the World Leader Cycle award in 1996. view more
    Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union in its late years. He was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and eventually became the President of the Soviet Union. During his leadership he initiated reforms withing the party and his actions also helped end the Cold War. He received the Nobel Peace Price in 1990.

EFR/EenVandaag election debate

Since 2002 EFR has a partnership with EenVandaag to organise the EFR/EenVandaag National Election debate. The debate is organised a few days before national or European elections and is always broadcasted on the Dutch national television. The venue of the debate is the auditorium of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

  • Mark Rutte

    Mister Rutte has been Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2010. Participated in 2006, 2010, 2010, 2012, 2017 and 2023. view more
    He is a member of the VVD, the peoples party for freedom and democracy. He was prime minister of two different cabinets. He is the first liberal prime minister since the second world war. Before being prime minister he was secratery for education, culture and science and social security and employment.
  • Jan Peter Balkenende

    Mister Balkenende was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002-2010. Participated in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010. view more
    Mister Balkenende has been the prime minister of the Netherlands 2002 till 2010. Participated in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010. He is member of the CDA, the Christian Democratic Appeal. He was prime minister of four different cabinets. Currently he is a professor in Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation at Erasmus School of Economics and chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition.
  • Pim Fortuyn

    Mister Fortuyn was party leader of the Lijst Pim Fortuyn. Participated in 2002. view more
    Mister Fortuyn was the leader of the populistic party Lijst Pim Fortuyn. During the debate of 2002 he walked away live on television because he thought he was not treated fairly. He only participated once in the debate. Mister Fortuyn his political career ended abruptly because he was murdered in the days before the election of 2002.
  • Femke Halsema

    Miss Halsema was the party leader of GroenLinks from 2002 till 2010. Participated in 2003, 2006 and 2010 view more
    Miss Halsema was the party leader of GroenLinks, the green left party. She has always been a prominent figure in dutch Chamber and was considered as the best politician of the Netherlands several times. In her book “pluche” she described her participation of the debate in 2003 as one of the most frightening events of her life.
  • Alexander Pechtold

    Mister Pechtold is the party leader of D66. Participated in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. view more
    Mister Pechtold is the leader of the Democrats 66, the progressive liberal party. Mister Pechtold was the mayor of Wageningen and minister for government reform and kingdom relations. He has written several books: “Henk, Ingrid and Alexander” and “Optimist in de Politiek”.
  • Geert Wilders

    Mister Wilders is the party leader of the PVV. Participated in 2010, 2012 and 2017. view more
    Mister Wilders is the leader of the Party for Freedom. He participated in the debate of 2017. This debate was a one on one debate between Mark Rutte and Geert Wilders. During this debate there was a lot of international attention for the elections because of the uprise of populism throughout the world (Trump, Erdogan, Le Pen).
  • Wouter Bos

    Mister Bos was the party leader of the PvdA. Participated in 2003, 2006 and 2010. view more
    Mister Bos was the party leader of the Partij van de Arbeid. He was was vice prime minister in the cabinet Balkenende IV. He was minister of Finance during the big crisis in 2009. He was praised for the way how he handled this crises because of this clear communication and leadership style.
  • Emile Roemer

    Mister Roemer is the party leader of the Socialistische Partij (SP). Participated in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. view more
    Mister Roemer is the party leader of the Socialistische Partij. He participated in 3 national elections. He is known for his humor and sharp comments during the debate. He also published a book called: Het kan wel. Tussen Binnenhof en buitenwereld.
  • Diederik Samsom

    Mister Samsom was the party leader of the PvdA. Participated in 2012 and 2014. view more
    Mister Samsom was the party leader of the Partij van de Arbeid. He was the main negotiator with Mark Rutte for the formation of the cabinet Rutte II. After that he went on as party leader in the Tweede Kamer. Before his career in politics he studied physics and was part of Greenpeace.
  • Sybrand Buma

    Mister Buma is the party leader of the CDA. Participated in 2012 and 2014. view more
    Mister Buma is the party leader of the CDA. He was one of the negotiators for the cabinet Rutte I. After that he became leader in the parliament for 6 years. Mister Buma studied Law in Groningen. He has always been part of the CDA as staff and after that as member of parliament.
  • Sigrid Kaag

    Miss Kaag is the party leader of D66. Participated in 2023. view more
    Miss Kaag is the leader of the Democrats 66, the progressive liberal party. Miss Kaag is the minister of finance and used to be the minister of foreign affairs. She served as under secretary-general at the United Nations.

World of Business congress 

The EFR Business Week has been the leading student congress in Europe for over 30 years. The power always has been the magnitude of its reach and ability to amaze. The “World of Business” invites all kinds of speakers to inspire students and spark their imagination. 

  • Constantijn van Oranje

    Special Envoy of StartupDelta. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2019. view more
    Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau leads StartupDelta, the accelerator for the startup ecosystem in the Netherlands and advises companies and the European Commission on their digital innovation strategies. He is a regular speaker at national and international tech conferences and holds a number of positions in both the public and private sector.
  • Neelie Kroes

    Former European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2019. view more
    Neelie Kroes is an active Board member/advisor of several (inter)national companies, such as Board Member Salesforce, Advisor Impraise BV and President Supervisory Board The Social Medwork BV. Previously Neelie Kroes was Special Envoy for startups in the Netherlands.
  • François Hollande

    President of France during 2012-2017. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2018. view more
    Hollande began his political career as a special advisor to newly elected President François Mitterrand, before serving as a staffer for Max Gallo, the government's spokesman. After becoming a member of the national assembly, he became first secretary of the socialist party in 1997.
  • Arundhati Batacharya

    Chair State Bank of India. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2017. view more
    Mrs. Arundhati Bhattacharya joined State Bank of India in 1977 and has worked in various challenging assignments across the length and breadth of the country and abroad to become the first Chairwoman of this 210 year old Fortune 500 Company. She has been ranked the 5th “Most Powerful Women in Finance” in 2016 by Forbes Magazine and has been featured in the Fortune List of Top 50 globally most powerful women in business.
  • Princess Laurentien

    Chairman Missing Chapter Foundation. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2017. view more
    Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands is the Chairman of Missing Chapter Foundation. She is also committed to fight illiteracy. She worked before in Brussels at a communication and PR bureau where she was a communication advisor. She holds a master degree in journalism from Berkeley University.
  • Sigrid Kaag

    United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2016. view more
    Before her current task Ms Kaag served as Under Secretatry-General and Special Coordinator of the United Nations. She lead the team that was responsible for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. She speaks six languages: Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German and Arabic.
  • Jeroen Dijsselbloem

    Minister of Finance. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2015. view more
    Jeroen Dijsselbloem is a member of the Dutch Labour party. He is the Minister of Finance since 2012 in the second Rutte cabinet. He is also the chairman of the Eurogroup. Before his ministry he was a member of the Dutch house of representatives. He holds a degree in agricultural economics from Wageningen University.
  • Wiebe Draijer

    Chairman of the Executive Board of Rabobank. Spoke at the World of Business congress in 2015. view more
    Draijer is the Chairman of the Executive Board of Rabobank since 2014. Before joining Rabobank Wiebe was the Chairman of the Social and Economic Council (SER). Before that he worked at McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam, lastly as Managing Partner.

Transform Your World sustainability summit

During this summit Dutch Leaders of Industry along with the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade & Development Cooperation and the UN special advisor on the Sustainable Development Goals met in order to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals and how these can be achieved.

  • Paul Polman

    CEO of Unilever since 2009. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    Under his leadership Unilever set out an ambition to decouple growth from its environmental footprint while increasing its positive social impact. Paul is Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a member of The B-Team and the Business and Sustainable Development Commission. In 2016, he was asked to be a member of the SDG Advocacy Group.
  • Frans van Houten

    CEO of Philips since 2011. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    Frans van Houten is passionate about business transformation and performance management and is a long-time champion of the company’s strategic approach to innovating sustainably. He leads Philips in its goal to make the world healthier and more sustainable and to achieve the company’s stated goal of improving three billion lives per year by 2025.
  • Marjan van Loon

    CEO of Shell Netherlands since 2016. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    Marjan studied Chemical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology. After her studies she joined Shell in 1989 as a chemical engineer. Before becoming President Director of Shell Netherlands, she was Vice President LNG and Gas Processing.
  • Feike Sijbesma

    CEO of DSM since 2007. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    Mr Sijbesma is CEO of Royal DSM and member of the Supervisory Board of Unilever and the Dutch Central Bank. He is also on the CEO Council of the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and is co-chairman of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition convened by the World Bank.
  • Lilianne Ploumen

    Minister for Foreign Trade & Development Cooperation since 2012. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    From 2001 to 2007 Ms Ploumen worked for the development organisation Cordaid. She was Chair of the Labour Party (PvdA) from October 2007 to January 2012. On 5 November 2012 Lilianne Ploumen was appointed Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Rutte-Asscher government.
  • David Nabarro

    UN special advisor on the Sustainable Development Goals since 2016. Participated in the summit in 2016. view more
    David Nabarro serves as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change. He works with governments and other stakeholders to galvanize action on implementation of both the 2030 and climate action agendas. He also oversees the Secretary-General’s special initiatives.
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