Gerard Sanderink has been suspended as CEO of Oranjewoud NV, Strukton Groep NV and other subsidiaries with immediate effect. The Supervisory Board of Oranjewoud NV announced this on Friday evening in a press statement. Sanderink has been under fire for some time because of troubles at his company Centric and in his private life.
Those vicissitudes seem to be the reason behind his suspension as CEO. The Supervisory Board of Oranjewoud NV is said to have come to the decision “after a period of incidents involving Mr Sanderink” and takes the decision “in the interest of the companies, employees and other stakeholders of the companies”. Oranjewoud NV, of which Strukton Groep is a part, is involved in large-scale construction projects and urban planning.
Unrest at Centric
Sanderink was suspended as a director of Centric in November last year by the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. At the time, the Enterprise Chamber ruled that Sanderink seemed unable to separate the interests of the IT company he founded from his private interests. That gave “reason to doubt Sanderink’s ability to make rational decisions.” He also lost control of all of his shares in the company.
The suspension at Centric was the result of a series of legal conflicts that Sanderink fought out in public with his ex-wife Brigitte van Egten. He divorced her and married the controversial self-proclaimed cyber expert Rian van Rijbroek. His company Centric, which carried out orders for chip machine builder ASML and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), was then dragged into the conflict.
The unrest in Sanderink’s private life had an impact on the company, which has 2,500 employees in the Netherlands. Major customers threatened to walk away and board members resigned. Although Sanderink himself resigned as a director in January 2021 to help his company, he returned in October 2022. After an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service, he was subsequently suspended.
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