Dick Benschop
# Dick Benschop

Dick Anne Benschop (born 5 November 1957) is a former Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and businessman. He was the CEO and chairman of the Schiphol Group since 1 May 2018 until 1 November 2022 and chairman of the Orange Foundation [nl] since 1 June 2017.

## Career

Benschop worked as a political consultant for the Labour Party from 1986 until 1996. After the election of 1998 Benschop was appointed as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet Kok II, serving from 3 August 1998 until 22 July 2002.

Benschop served as the Labour Party campaign manager for the election of 2002. The Labour Party suffered a big defeat in the election losing 23 seats in the House of Representatives, Leader of the Labour Party and Lijsttrekker (top candidate) Ad Melkert accepted responsibility for the defeat and sequentially left national politics. Benschop who was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the election, also took responsibility for the defeat and served in the House of Representatives from 23 May 2002 until his resignation on 1 September 2002.

He served as CEO of the Schiphol airport group until Sept 2022, when he resigned following months of chaos.

## Other activities

* Trilateral Commission, Member of the European Group

## Decorations

Honours :

| Ribbon bar | Honour | Country | Date | Comment |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| | Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau | Netherlands | 10 December 2002 | |
