On the 2nd of May, Nout Wellink was our guest at Food for Thought. Nout Wellink is a top official and economist. Before he obtained a doctoral degree in Economics at the Erasmus University, he studied from 1961 till 1968 Dutch Law at Leiden University. Mr. Wellink started his successful career in 1970 at the Ministry of Finance. He stayed here from until 1982 and occupied several positions, ranging from economic employee to director financial and economic politics. In 1982 he started working at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) as Executive Director. Since 1997 he started his current function; President of DNB.

Besides being President of the DNB, Mr. Wellink has occupied or still occupies many other functions. He has been a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. Also, he has chaired the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision since July 2006. Furthermore, he is a member of the Trilateral Commission. This is a private organization established to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe, and Japan. Because he is both President of DNB and member of the Trilateral Commission, he is in the past years often accused of having conflicting interests. Additionally, Mr. Wellink is Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Leiden University, received an honorary doctorate in Economics from Tilburg University, and has been awarded a Knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

The interview with Nout Wellink was an impressive one. Now that Wellink is a candidate to become the new president of the European Central Bank his visit attracted a lot of students, employees and professors of Tilburg University and a lot of members of the press. Wellink talked about the restructuring of countries that are troubled by the euro crisis and about the future of 'The Nederlandsche Bank'. Although Wellink was very careful with his words, he did indicate that he was open to a debt restructuring for Greece.