Centric CEO Gerard Sanderink lays down positions

Gerard Sanderink has retired as CEO of Centric with effect from 4 January. The company reports this on its website. The company will be looking for a new board member in the near future. Sanderink also stopped at Oranjewoud.

Centric reports in a statement that Sanderink is stepping down because of ‘the unrest that has arisen around his person’. The CEO has regularly been in the news in recent years, partly because of a heated argument with former partner Brigitte van Egten, with whom he fought various lawsuits, Tubantia also writes. Sanderink was proven wrong several times. At the end of December, Sanderink would have threatened a police inspector and a bailiff, the AD writes. He would also have refused to hand in a recovered smartphone.

There has also been unrest within Centric for longer because of Sanderink’s link with Rian van Rijbroek, who has an advisory role within the ICT company. Van Rijbroek calls herself a ‘cyber security expert’, but because of appearances in TV program Nieuwsuur and in BNR podcast De Technoloog, in addition to the plagiarism in her first book, many people are questioning her work. Van Rijbroek also claimed to have been employed by the AIVD, but the NOS said it had information in 2019 that shows that this is not the case. Centric previously indicated that it still has confidence in Van Rijbroek’s work.

Centric says it will be looking for a new non-executive board member to supplement the current board in the coming period. Louis Luijten, a current board member of Centric, will take over from Sanderink as chairman.