Witteveen, H. Johannes

Witteveen, H. Johannes (Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen), 1921–2019, Dutch economist and political leader. After receiving his doctorate from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam) in 1946, he was a professor there (1948–63). A member of the socially liberal, probusiness People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, Witteveen was a financial analyst in the Netherlands government (1945–48) and was elected to the parliament's upper house (1958–63, 1971–73) and lower house (1963, 1965–67). He served as minister of finance (1963–65, 1967–71) and deputy prime minister (1967–71) under prime ministers Victor Marijnen and Piet de Jong. From 1973 to 1978 Witteveen was managing director of the International Monetary Fund, guiding it through a period of global economic turbulence. He then chaired (1978–85) the Group of Thirty, a Washington-based international economic and monetary research organization. He wrote Developng a New International Monetary System (1983).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Benelux History: Biographies