Groothuis (1972) has been with TU/e since 2012 and was, among other things, Director of Education & Student Affairs (ESA), TU/e's largest department, for seven years. Since June this year, he has supported the Executive Board as university secretary. He began his career at TU/e as Managing Director for the Mathematics & Computer Science department. Groothuis studied business administration at Erasmus University and previously worked for the municipality of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Defense, among others.

"We are extremely pleased to have been able to appoint Patrick Groothuis as the third member of the Executive Board," said Peter Wennink, chair of the TU/e Supervisory Board. "We know Patrick as someone with a great overview and strong vision, as a firm, tenacious and amiable leader, and with great dossier knowledge. He can make a flying start with his enormous knowledge of the organization and his large network in the university and beyond. We wish him every success in his new role."

Robert-Jan Smits, President of The Executive Board: "It is with particular pleasure that we can welcome Patrick to the Board. He has already shown in the past five months, in his position as university secretary, that he can fill the role of board member excellently with his overview, thorough knowledge of matters and his analytical character. He is a perfect fit with the rector magnificus and myself in terms of background and character, so we look forward to a more than excellent collaboration."

"I am proud to be able to facilitate the strategic ambitions of our great university through this role and to represent TU/e at the highest level," Groothuis stated. "From within my portfolio I will do my utmost to ensure that operations are sufficiently connected to education, research and valorization. Important themes for me are ownership and integrality of services, the steering of this from the departments, and ‘putting the user central’."

Patrick Groothuis succeeds Nicole Ummelen as the new vice president. She became chair of the Executive Board of the Open University as of September 1.

Editorial note

The amount of journalistic freedom at Cursor is very unclear at the moment. In collaboration with the unions, the editorial staff has submitted a proposal letter with suggestions regarding press freedom to the Executive Board, and a first discussion has taken place. This article was published in anticipation of the outcome of the negotiation process.