Programme in the context of the Elverding Chairs

Long-term decision-making by firms is necessary for them to be profitable in the long run, but also to provide society with innovative products and services, employment and solutions to key societal problems in many domains. Pressured by short-term oriented shareholders, many firms opt for maximising short-term profitability with material consequences for innovation strength and the other stakeholders of the firm. This development is amplified by short-term oriented incentives given to firm executives and the silence of many asset owners, such as pension funds.
The two chair-holders will share their views on this topic in the first hour, after which there is room for discussion with representatives of the business community. This panel consists of Diederik van Wassenaer from ING Bank, Dimitri de Vreeze from DSM and Olaf Sleijpen from DNB.

The Elverding chairs, set up to commemorate Peter Elverding’s contribution to socio-economic development in the Netherlands, aim to provide insight into the enhancement of long-term decision-making, by studying firms from a cultural, legal and economic perspective and in a European context. The Elverding chairs are unique in that they combine the strengths and networks of both the Faculty of Law and the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University. The chair holders will be able to define and tackle research projects in which both economic and legal challenges and solutions can be investigated both from a corporate and an institutional investment perspective, as paying attention to sustainability topics in a broad sense, including the quality of corporate governance.

The Elverding chairs are funded through donations from the Dutch National Bank, DSM, ING and Q-Park.