In December 2009 Manita Koop phoned to ask if I wanted to put myself forward for the title of Businesswoman of the Year 2009. I am not really a person for ‘woman stuff’, but this question came at the right time: for me, for Priva. It would give me the stage to publicize the movement I had initiated, by explaining it to the outside world! What an opportunity!

I needed the unconditional support of a few people to say yes to this opportunity. Firstly, my husband Paul. Without the support of my husband, I would not have started on it. I knew that it would take up a lot of time. Annemarie Rakhorst, former Businesswoman of the Year, told me that it would surely take up two days a week. Was it worth it? Could I do that to my family? Paul ultimately gave me the confidence to see that I had to take the opportunity. For myself, for Priva, for the sectors that Priva operates in.

Handed on a silver platter
And then my parents. I doubted if this prize belonged to me, whether I was entitled to it. I had the feeling that, after all, the opportunity was handed to me on a silver platter by my father… So I returned to where it all started, with my father. Without the confirmation from my father, I would never have done it. But my father was just super-proud of me. And my mother said: “You have fought hard for it”. She was right.

And there I stood on Monday, March 23 at the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague, in the presence of my parents, my husband and my children. I received the Prix Veuve Clicquot 2009 from Neelie Kroes.