Dirk is the founder of ERIF and served at its Secretary General until May 2023. He joined Fipra, a public affairs consultancy, as chairman and head of their Brussels office in 2001. Prior to this, he was Secretary General of the Union of Industrial & Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE now BusinessEurope) from 1998 to 2001, having previously chaired UNICE’s Committee on State Aid. He has held several other posts including Chairman of the BIAC Environment Committee in the OECD, Secretary and later Treasurer of the Society of Chemical Industry Europe Committee, and sat on the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) Programme Committee. Dirk has served as president of the British Chamber of Commerce and was honored with an OBE by the British Government for this. He joined ICI, the UK Chemicals company, in 1970 and worked in various businesses within the group in Rotterdam, London & Brussels before becoming national Head and Group Manager of EU Government Relations for ICI from 1987-1998.
