PRESS RELEASE

Arno Treur CFO of NPRC as of 1 January

Expansion of the executive board for stable growth of the cooperative

Rotterdam, 11th of January 2023

On January 1st this year, Arno Treur was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the NPRC cooperative. This promotion is an extension of the board of the largest inland waterway cooperative in Northwest Europe and thus one step further in the realisation of the strategic plans in the area of sustainability and digitalisation of the supply chain. Arno Treur is not unknown to the NPRC. He joined the inland waterway organisation in 2019 as Manager Finance & Control. Before that, he was Financial Controller of the heavy lifting division at Roll Group.

Strategic partnership

The position of CFO is new to NPRC and is in line with the current size that the cooperative has been able to achieve through stable growth in recent years. That growth resulted from NPRC’s successfully launched course as a strategic partner in the supply chain. This approach has changed the cooperative’s role as a logistics service provider and has led to a different perception of the NPRC by customers. Arno Treur: “Logistic issues are increasingly not only operational but also strategic. Take, for example, the efforts to reduce emissions, the use of hydrogen-electric ships, the digitalisation and optimisation of the supply chain and more data-driven logistics. NPRC is growing with these kinds of strategic issues and developments at its customers.” Treur continues, “I am very honoured that the current Chief Executive Officer (CFO) Femke Brenninkmeijer and the Cooperative’s Supervisory Board have offered me the opportunity to grow within the organisation. I look forward to working with Femke on the strategic issues of sustainability and digitalisation as CFO of the cooperative starting this year.” In addition to these two areas, Treur will as CFO ultimately be responsible for all financial matters, legal and regulatory compliance (including tax issues), risk management and legal matters.”

Cooperative board

In concrete terms, the appointment of Arno Treur as CFO means that the NPRC’s board will consist of two people from January 2023, after having consisted of one CEO for many years. Femke Brenninkmeijer, CEO of the NPRC: “The promotion ensures the continuity of the cooperative, as it makes the organisation less vulnerable and dependent on one person. In addition, we have learned in the last couple of years that we can support each other when it comes to making strategic decisions together. The joint making of decisions is precisely what fits the spirit of our cooperative. Furthermore, this step will also increase the efficiency of the organisation. We have divided the tasks so that decisions can be made more quickly in this fast-changing world. These considerations were discussed at length with our supervisory board when this position was created, which will primarily serve the interests of the members as well as the organisation.”

Brenninkmeijer concludes: “I myself am very happy that Arno is now at my side on the board. It gives me a lot of confidence that we can take this step with someone from our own organisation. Arno not only knows finance, but is also an excellent sparring partner for various other issues. The son of an agricultural entrepreneur, he brings a no-nonsense approach and has a particularly good feel for the challenges that an SME entrepreneur faces on a daily basis. These qualities, but certainly also his contribution to the further development of the NPRC in recent years, makes Arno the right candidate for this new position.”