Pim Van Ballekom was appointed, on 16 January, vice-president and member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB) by the bank’s Board of Governors, consisting of the member states’ finance ministers. Van Ballekom, 55, has been the first Dutch vice-president since 2000 and the fourth Dutch vice-president since the bank was founded in 1958. He was previously head of international public affairs at APG Pension Group and the Dutch member of the Board of Directors of the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He was also financial counsellor and head of the financial section at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU, as well as head of cabinet for European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein.