Fred Gertsen

Dr. Fred H.M. Gertsen RA, was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in The Netherlands for almost 25 years and retired in 2012. As a partner with PwC, Dr. Gertsen was responsible for audits and advice to many global financial services clients. He was partner in charge of the Dutch Asset Management and Real Estate Practice for many years. Furthermore, he was a member of the PwC Central Cluster Asset Management Leadership team, with prime responsibility for Human Capital Development.

Dr. Gertsen was lead partner on AerCap, one of the largest global airplane leasing companies. Through his PwC partner audit client role he has been in a position to follow developments at Groen Aeronautics Corporation since 2004. In addition, at PwC Dr. Gertsen has worked with a variety of multinational banks, insurance companies, asset managers and large hedge funds. Before joining PwC, he worked at Peat Marwick & Mitchell (now KPMG) and Cargill. He was seconded to London, Singapore and Miami and also has extensive work experience in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the United States.

Dr. Gertsen is Register-accountant at the Royal Dutch Institute (NIVRA) and received a Master’s degree of Professional Accounting from the University of Miami. He received his PhD from Erasmus University, Rotterdam. His dissertation analyzed why gatekeepers did not ‘bark’ during the corporate reporting scandals at the beginning of the 21st century. He has researched and lectured on topics such as: treasury and risk management, banking, hedge funds and complex financial instruments.

In addition to serving on the Skyworks Aeronautics Strategic Board of Advisors, he currently is a Board Member and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of one of the larger Dutch pension funds. In addition, he holds a supervisory board position at a Dutch insurer and is a supervisor at Rijnlands Lyceum, a group of Dutch and international schools. After his retirement he also worked as Assistant Professor and Executive Fellow at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Since April 2016 he also serves as Principal Investigator at the University of Chicago’s Institute on the Formation of Knowledge where his research is focused on environmental, social and governance issues (ESG), the three central factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of socially responsible investing and corporate governance.