Pieter van Vollenhoven Jr. (born 30 April 1939) is the husband of

Princess Margriet of the Netherlands Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (Margriet Francisca; born 19 January 1943) is the third daughter of Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard. As an aunt of the reigning monarch, King Willem-Alexander, she is a member of the Dutch Royal House a ...

and a member, by marriage, of the Dutch royal house.

Early life and career

Van Vollenhoven was born in

Schiedam Schiedam () is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schi ...

, he is the second son of Pieter van Vollenhoven Sr. (1897–1977) and his wife Jacoba Gijsbertha Stuylingh de Lange (1906–1983). The van Vollenhoven family and the Stuylingh de Lange family belong to the Dutch patriciate. Van Vollenhoven attended secondary school in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, and he subsequently studied law at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. He graduated in 1965, after which he worked as a legal officer for the Netherlands Council of State. In 1966, he performed his military service with the

Royal Netherlands Air Force The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF; , "Royal Air Force") is the military aviation branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It was created in 1953 to succeed its predecessor, the ''Luchtvaartafdeling'' () of the Dutch Army, which was founded ...

, and attained a military pilot license the following year.

Current positions

Van Vollenhoven is currently best known in the Netherlands for having been the chairman of the

Dutch Safety Board The Dutch Safety Board (DSB; , OVV, literally "Investigation Council for Safety") is the official body that investigates a wide variety of safety matters in the Netherlands. It is based in The Hague.minister Tjerk Westerterp. Following the Bijlmer and Hercules disasters, a need was felt in The Netherlands for a single body to investigate all transportation-related incidents; the Transportation Safety Council (Dutch: ''Raad voor de Transportveiligheid'') was created, which incorporated the earlier Road Transportation Safety and Rail Incident Boards and also had Van Vollenhoven as chairman. Van Vollenhoven felt, however, that the country should have a single board to investigate ''all'' safety-related issues; lobbying on his part finally convinced the government to transform the Transportation Safety Council into a general Safety Board, of which Van Vollenhoven was made the first chairman. Due to his expertise in the area, the

University of Twente The University of Twente ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. ) is a Public university, public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

made Van Vollenhoven a professor on 1 October 2005. He holds the policy research chair, which is a subspecialty of the

risk management Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, followed by the minimization, monitoring, and control of the impact or probability of those risks occurring. Risks can come from various sources (i.e, Threat (sec ...

group. He held his

oration Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

on 28 April 2006, and called for the creation of a Minister of Safety at that time. In 1989, Van Vollenhoven took the initiative in setting up the Dutch Victim Support Fund, of which he is also the chairman. He is also chairman of the Nationaal Groenfonds, the National Restorationfund and the Society, Safety and Police Association and the International Transport Safety Board. He is a member of the European Transport Safety Council.

Notable acts

As Chairman of the Safety Board, Van Vollenhoven oversaw the investigation of the Schipholbrand, a fire in a holding facility for illegal immigrants in The Netherlands. He presented a final report on 21 September 2006, with such devastating findings that ministers Piet Hein Donner and Sybilla Dekker resigned over it. A third responsible minister, Rita Verdonk refused to resign despite her responsibility in the matter. Following the

Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 (also known as the Poldercrash or the Schiphol Polderbaan incident) was a passenger flight that crashed during landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands, on 25 February 2009, resulting in the deaths of ...

crash, Van Vollenhoven led the investigation by the Safety Board. This investigation brought him into conflict with the Office of the Attorney General, which requested access to the

black box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

data. Citing that there was no reason at that time to suspect foul play and that the Board investigation would be hampered by the threat of legal action against persons, Van Vollenhoven absolutely refused this access. When he turned 70, Barry Sweedler (of the US National Transportation Safety Board) said to him: "The world is a safer place because of your work and leadership".

Hobbies

Van Vollenhoven is an avid pianist. In 1986 he formed a trio – ''De Gevleugelde Vrienden'' – with two of the country's leading pianists ( Pim Jacobs and Louis van Dijk) and gave some twenty concerts a year both at home and abroad in aid of the Victim Support Fund. De Gevleugelde Vrienden were awarded four gold discs. After the death of one of the members of the trio, Pim Jacobs, Van Vollenhoven continued to give concerts with pianists Louis van Dijk and Koos Mark. Van Vollenhoven is still an active pilot and he also dives. He almost lost the tip of his right

index finger The index finger (also referred to as forefinger, first finger, second finger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secundus, digitus II, and many other terms) is the second digit of a human hand. It is located between the thumb and the m ...

during a dive in 2005, when he got caught between the boat and the dock steps. Doctors were able to reattach the tip. He is also a photographer. The Victim Support Fund raised money in 2008 and 2009 by selling

calendars A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A calendar date, date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is ...

with his photographs.

Health

Van Vollenhoven was diagnosed with a

Melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

, a common type of skin cancer, in May 2017. He had it removed at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. In November that same year, he was diagnosed with another Melanoma and had it removed.

Marriage and family

Van Vollenhoven married

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

on 10 January 1967, in the St. James Church. This made him the first member of the Dutch Royal House being a

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

and not of

royal Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or Royalty (disambiguation), royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Ill ...

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

origin. He was not given any royal titles as a result of the marriage and is therefore formally addressed as "Mister Van Vollenhoven" or by his professional title as "Professor Van Vollenhoven". The couple went to live in Het Loo House, near the

Het Loo Palace Paleis Het Loo ( , meaning "The wikt:lea#English, Lea") is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, built by the House of Orange-Nassau. History The symmetry, symmetrical Dutch Baroque architecture, Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman ...

. They have four sons: * Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (born 17 April 1968), married Marilène van den Broek (born 4 February 1970); * Prince Bernhard of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (born 25 December 1969), married Annette Sekrève (born 18 April 1972); * Prince Pieter-Christiaan of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (born 22 March 1972), married Anita van Eijk (born 27 October 1969); * Prince Floris of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (born 10 April 1975), married Aimée Söhngen (born 19 October 1977). The German house name

Lippe-Biesterfeld The House of Lippe-Biesterfeld was a comital and later princely cadet line of the House of Lippe (a German dynasty reigning from 1413 until 1918, of comital and, from 1789, of princely rank). The comital branch of Lippe-Biesterfeld ascended t ...

is borne by the children of Prince Maurits (making them Van Lippe-Biesterfeld van Vollenhoven); his other (grand)children are just van Vollenhoven.

Honours and awards

Van Vollenhoven received numerous honours and awards in the Netherlands but also internationally:Onderscheidingen van de koninklijke familie
– website Alles op een rij

Honorary citizenship

On 12 June 2004, he was made an Honorary citizen of the town of

Vollenhove Vollenhove is a city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland, southwest of Steenwijk. Until the Noordoostpolder was drained, it was located on the coast of the Zuiderzee. Vollenhove received ci ...

References

External links

Professor Pieter van Vollenhoven
Description and CV on the Royal House website {{DEFAULTSORT:Vollenhoven, Pieter van 1939 births Living people Royal Netherlands Air Force pilots Royal Netherlands Air Force officers Dutch royalty House of Orange-Nassau People from Apeldoorn People from Schiedam Academic staff of the University of Twente Leiden University alumni Grand Cordons of the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Grand Crosses of the Order of Prince Henry Grand Crosses of the Order of the House of Orange Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class Recipients of Supreme Order of the Renaissance (Jordan)