Bernardus Johannes Maria "Ben" Verwaayen (born February 11, 1952 in Driebergen) is a Dutch businessman. On September 2, 2008 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Verwaayen as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Patricia Russo.
Ben Verwaayen is the fifth of six children born to a family who owned a chemicals business in Driebergen. At school, he organised the first student parliament, and after graduating from Utrecht Univ...
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Bernardus Johannes Maria "Ben" Verwaayen (born February 11, 1952 in Driebergen) is a Dutch businessman. On September 2, 2008 the Alcatel-Lucent board of directors appointed Verwaayen as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Patricia Russo.
Ben Verwaayen is the fifth of six children born to a family who owned a chemicals business in Driebergen. At school, he organised the first student parliament, and after graduating from Utrecht University with a degree in law and international relations in 1975, wanted to be a journalist or politician.
On graduation, he decided to immediately undertake his National Service with the Royal Netherlands Army, where he founded the Algemene Vereniging Nederlandse Militairen (General Association of Dutch soldiers), a union that existed until 1996.
On leaving the army, to enable him to continue his work with the trade union, he joined a subsidiary of ITT Corporation because it gave him time to sit on a Dutch state committee to reform the army....
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