The Chairman of the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) Peter van Mierlo has announced that he will step down as the organization’s CEO.

At his appointment in July 2018, Van Mierlo was tasked to make the organization future-proof; specific attention was required for the organization’s compliance and ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) processes as well as more transparent reporting and communication around FMO’s investments.

Over the course of the past two years, significant progress in this transformation process has been made.

Van Mierlo said: “It is essential that FMO’s transformation continues with zeal, energy and perseverance. For all who work at FMO, the organization’s stakeholders and the work FMO does. The organization is on the right course to secure its future role but is not quite there yet. Significant steps have been made, however along the way there were increasingly discussions around the way the transition was led; as a result, I noticed that my effectiveness decreased.”

“All energy needs to go to the transformation itself and I do not want to be an obstacle to making this happen. Therefore, I have informed the Supervisory Board of my decision to step down as FMO’s CEO. This decision is made with a heavy heart, but the organization needs to come first.”

Dirk Jan van den Berg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at FMO, said: “We regret Peter’s decision to leave the organization. These past two years, he has made a tremendously valuable contribution to the transformation of the organization. His vision, focus on development and sharp eye will be missed. The Supervisory Board will now assess his succession.”

The Supervisory Board has asked Van Mierlo to stay for another three months in an advisory role to the Management Board, to Chief Risk & Finance Officer (CRFO) Fatoumata Bouaré and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Linda Broekhuizen.