Rien van Gendt

Rien van Gendt, "executive director of the Van Leer Group Foundation, is the first international winner of the Council on Foundations' Distinguished Grantmaker Award. He has consistently reached across borders to champion a holistic, global approach to philanthropy.

"Having earned a doctorate in economic studies from the University of Amsterdam, Van Gendt was formerly head of programs at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. His career path has traversed all sectors—he's worked in academia as a lecturer on the University of Amsterdam's economics faculty, in the public sector as deputy secretary of the Scientific Council for Government Policy and deputy director of the State Administration Limburg, and in the private sector as executive director of Wilma Vastgoed B.V., all before joining the philanthropic sector as executive director of the Bernard Van Leer Foundation in 1988. Currently, Van Gendt serves on the board of the European Foundation Centre (EFC) in Brussels and on the supervisory boards of several corporations and foundations in the Netherlands and the United States."


 * National Advisor, YouthGive
 * Director, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
 * Treasurer, Network of European Foundations
 * Trustee, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute