Ir. R. Uijlenhoet

Ir.Ruud Uijlenhoet born in 1940, graduated in 1966 at the University of Delft as Aeronautical Engineer. After his graduation he started his professional career at the National Aerospace Laboratory [NLR] in Amsterdam. He was amongst others involved in the research of “high subsonic schockfree profiles”. However the thought of being a research fellow at the NLR the rest of his life was frightening for him. In 1971 he started a complete new course in his life, he became a management trainee at the Heineken Breweries ltd. After a training period of 1 1/2 year he was sent overseas to Nigeria. He held various technical jobs within the Heineken Company. In 1983 he left Heineken as chief engineer of their “ Zoeterwoude” brewing facilities. During his working period at Heineken he followed many management courses at, Insead, London Business School, and “ de Baak”. He remained however interested in the aviation business and in 1983 he got an employment with Schiphol Airport. He started his career at the Airport as Chief Engineer. It became an interesting period. The aviation business did grow explosively. The Airport facilities had to be expanded very rapidly to cope with the ever increasing growth. A new Master plan of Schiphol had to be developed. Various building projects were started. The plan for a new runway was developed to accommodate the ever growing aircraft movements and to increase the peak hour capacity of the airport. In 1987 he was appointed to Chief Operating Officer of the airport. A new and challenging period started. The direct involvement in the various extension projects diminished. As a board member the focus was more and more directed to the strategic development of the airport. Amongst others the organization structure had to be changed, it did not fit the new strategy of the company. A “Business Structure” was set up. The “Airport City” concept was developed. A large real estate program was the result. Privatization of airports started . The Schiphol Group wanted to take part in this development. The company “Schiphol International” was established. Schiphol became a partner in Brisbane Airport in Australia and John F. Kennedy Airport in the U.S. At this airports large renovation and new projects were started. Managers of Schiphol became responsible for the management of the airports. Within the Netherlands the airports of Rotterdam and Lelystad were taken over. A majority share was taken in Eindhoven Airport. Next to board membership of some airports he was a board member of ACI [Airport Council International]. The worldwide organization of airports . The representative of airports in worldwide aviation for a, like IATA and ICAO. The European branch is the representative towards the European Commission. In 2001 ir. Ruud Uijlenhoet said farewell to the Schiphol Group and went into retirement. An extremely interesting period in his life came to an end. A period in which the airport grew from 8 million passengers and 180.000 aircraft movements towards 40 million passenger movements and 400.000 aircraft movements, the regional airports developed and Schiphol an international operating company became.