Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Frans van Houten
Current role: CEO Royal Philips
Since: 2011
Born: Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 1960
Nationality: Dutch
Graduated: Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Economics & Business Management)
Since: 2011
Born: Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 1960
Nationality: Dutch
Graduated: Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Economics & Business Management)
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Frans van Houten
Frans van Houten is CEO of Royal Philips, a position he has held since April 2011. As CEO, he is also Chairman of the Board of Management and the Executive Committee.
He is passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship and business transformation to drive competitiveness and customer value.
He is extending Philips’ leadership in health technology as the company focuses on its purpose to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation, with the goal of improving 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030.
Frans drives Philips’ strategic agenda to provide healthcare technology solutions in support of seamless, patient-centered care across the health continuum, starting with healthy living and prevention, precision diagnosis and personalized treatment, through to care in the home – where the cycle to healthy living begins again. He leads the company’s initiatives to help empower consumers to take more care of their own health and to provide healthcare solutions – suites of systems, smart devices, software and services – to customers and health systems.
He first joined Philips in 1986 and has held multiple global leadership positions across the company on three continents, including the role of co-CEO of the Consumer Electronics division. Frans’ team has driven the transformation and revitalization of the Philips portfolio to become a focused health technology company through targeted divestment, acquisition and organic business development. This is exemplified by the sale of the television business in 2012; the audio and video businesses in 2014, the IPO of Philips Lighting on the Amsterdam Euronext stock exchange in May 2016, and the divestment of Domestic Appliances in 2021. At the same time, Philips has invested in a number of acquisitions that strengthen the company’s portfolio, among them medical device leaders Volcano, Spectranetics and Intact Vascular, remote cardiac diagnostics and monitoring leader BioTelemetry, and patient care management solutions provider Capsule Technologies, as well as others in pregnancy & parenting, healthcare informatics, sleep & respiratory care, emergency care and ultrasound.
He is extending Philips’ leadership in health technology as the company focuses on its purpose to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation, with the goal of improving 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030.
Frans drives Philips’ strategic agenda to provide healthcare technology solutions in support of seamless, patient-centered care across the health continuum, starting with healthy living and prevention, precision diagnosis and personalized treatment, through to care in the home – where the cycle to healthy living begins again. He leads the company’s initiatives to help empower consumers to take more care of their own health and to provide healthcare solutions – suites of systems, smart devices, software and services – to customers and health systems.
He first joined Philips in 1986 and has held multiple global leadership positions across the company on three continents, including the role of co-CEO of the Consumer Electronics division. Frans’ team has driven the transformation and revitalization of the Philips portfolio to become a focused health technology company through targeted divestment, acquisition and organic business development. This is exemplified by the sale of the television business in 2012; the audio and video businesses in 2014, the IPO of Philips Lighting on the Amsterdam Euronext stock exchange in May 2016, and the divestment of Domestic Appliances in 2021. At the same time, Philips has invested in a number of acquisitions that strengthen the company’s portfolio, among them medical device leaders Volcano, Spectranetics and Intact Vascular, remote cardiac diagnostics and monitoring leader BioTelemetry, and patient care management solutions provider Capsule Technologies, as well as others in pregnancy & parenting, healthcare informatics, sleep & respiratory care, emergency care and ultrasound.
We’re guided by our purpose of improving people's health and well-being through meaningful innovation, with the goal of improving 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030.
As a seasoned business leader, Frans served as Co-Chair at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2017. He was one of the initiators and is currently Chair of the WEF Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy. A proponent of a united, single European market, Frans is also a member of the European Round Table for Industry, an advocacy organization comprising the 50 largest European multinationals. He is co-founder and advocate of NL2025, a platform of Dutch influencers who support initiatives to create a better future for the Netherlands in the areas of education, sustainable growth and a vital society.
He was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of Novartis in February, 2017.
Frans holds a Master's degree in Economics and Business Management from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and, since 2014, has served as chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Erasmus University Trust Fund. Frans was named one the world’s top 20 business leaders in 2017 by influential global business magazine, Fortune. Its citation stated: “We lean toward CEOs with vision — those impacting the world beyond their companies. The 20 star executives are doing nothing less than defining the future of business.”
Frans is married and has four children. He lives near Amsterdam and enjoys contributing to community projects, sailing, skiing, running, gardening and art.
He was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of Novartis in February, 2017.
Frans holds a Master's degree in Economics and Business Management from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and, since 2014, has served as chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Erasmus University Trust Fund. Frans was named one the world’s top 20 business leaders in 2017 by influential global business magazine, Fortune. Its citation stated: “We lean toward CEOs with vision — those impacting the world beyond their companies. The 20 star executives are doing nothing less than defining the future of business.”
Frans is married and has four children. He lives near Amsterdam and enjoys contributing to community projects, sailing, skiing, running, gardening and art.
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At a glance
Current role: CEO Royal Philips
Since: 2011
Born: Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 1960
Nationality: Dutch
Graduated: Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Economics & Business Management)
Since: 2011
Born: Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 1960
Nationality: Dutch
Graduated: Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Economics & Business Management)
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