Bart de Boer Leaves Efteling

At the end of June, the industry was taken by surprise by the announcement of Efteling’s Supervisory Board of Directors that Bart de Boer – CEO and Chairman of Efteling since 2008 – will leave the Dutch theme park (which is ranked among the top 5 within the European theme park industry with more than 4 million visitors p.a.) per 1 September 2013. The Supervisory Board expresses its gratitude towards Bart de Boer’s contributions to the development of Efteling since 2008. The park states that the implementation of the ambitious expansion program of the last years had been an important part of De Boer’s assignment and that it had been executed successfully. Furthermore the park reveals that after this period of strong expansion, the emphasis in the years to come would be on the consolidation and strengthening of the internal organization. The park comments, “During the last few months, the Supervisory Board has discussed this matter thoroughly and constructively with Mr De Boer. Both parties are convinced that this new phase demands another kind of leadership. Therefore it has been mutually decided to end Mr De Boer’s contract.” Henk Kivits was commissioned by the Supervisory Board to support the Board of Directors as a delegated member of the Supervisory Board until a suitable candidate for the position of the CEO of Efteling is found. According to the press release, Kivits joined the Supervisory Board in 2006 and has extensive knowledge of and experience in the company and the industry. The Supervisory Board would like to see the future CEO of Efteling increase the visitor numbers of the popular European family park to 5 million p.a. until 2020. In the future, the park will increasingly invest in intensive marketing efforts. The completion of the still unfinished “Hartenhof” project in the heart of the park cannot be expected before 2015. Larger investments in new attractions will rather be made every five years. (eap)