Room for Discussion

Listen to our interview with the CEO of DeGiro, Muhamad Chahrour. We discuss how the broker is navigating challenging times, how it is dealing with the merger with it's German brother, and he tells us why he thinks the idea of democratizing finance is nonsense.

*Fighting Crime in the Digital Age - with Catherine de Bolle Executive Director Europol * On June 21st, Room for Discussion hosted the executive director of Europol, Catherine de Bolle! Like Judi Dench’s ‘M’, she is a formidable character in fighting international crime. She has worked in law enforcement her entire life, most notably as the General Police Commissioner in Brussels, President of the...

Room for Discussion welcomed one of the most important Colombian politicians of the 21st century, Sergio Jaramillo Caro. As the High Commissioner for Peace, he was responsible for the negotiations in Cuba with the insurgent FARC Rebel groups after decades of conflict. He spearheaded demobilization and human rights reform in the Colombian military and administration, and was a key figure in the wor...

Room for Discussion was excited to host Eugene Rhuggenaath, the former prime minister of Curaçao. In his term, Rhuggenaath was faced with various challenges which arose from the ‘independence’ of Curaçao from the Netherlands, along with difficulties brought on by the Covid-19 Pandemic. His government was the first to complete the entire term since Curaçao’s ‘independence’ in 2010. Nevertheless, he...

Hoe sexy kunnen wij pensioenenpraat maken? Kom er achter bij ons interview met Harmen van Wijnen, Algemeen Bestuursvoorzitter van Nederlands grootste pensioenfonds ABP. Harmen van Wijnen staat aan het hoofd van een fonds ter waarde van ruim €500 miljard dat misschien wel voor jouw oude dag moet gaan zorgen. Met een pensioenvermogen van meer dan 1,5 biljoen (!) euro heeft Nederland (percentueel) he...

Room for Discussion hosted one of the EU's top diplomats, Roland Kobia! He is a true EU guru; he started working for the European Commission 30 years ago and now works for the EU's diplomatic service, the EEAS. He is now EU Ambassador to Ethiopia, a country currently in the throes of civil war. Mr Kobia previously served as EU Ambassador to Myanmar and EU Special Envoy to Afghanistan, where he was...

Room for Discussion is elated to welcome Sir Paul Collier - development economist turned knight turned political advisor and commentator. This renowned political economist currently serves as an Economics professor at Oxford and is the director of the International Growth Centre in London. He’s written nine bestselling and award-winning books, with topics ranging from greed to refugees to the envi...

We are truly excited to welcome Luis de Guindos, vice-president of the European Central Bank (ECB) to our stage. This seasoned economist has had an impressive career. De Guindos took office as head of the Spanish and Portuguese department of Lehman Brothers before the fall. He served as Spanish Minister of Economy and Competitiveness, where he became credited with steering Spain to economic recove...

Virologist Marion Koopmans joins Room for Discussion in an unprecedented mystery event. The world renowned infectious disease expert has managed outbreaks of ebola, MERs, and H7N7, but faced her biggest challenge as an advisor to the WHO throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Her outspoken disease activism has made her one of the most famous scientists in Netherlands, and a target of COVID deniers and...

More than half of the Dutch population has a Rabobank account. It is the second largest bank in the Netherlands and among the top 30 banks in the world, and we have the honour to discuss the Rabobank, banking and greening in general with their CEO Wiebe Draijer. If you have any questions regarding the role banks play in the Ukraine conflict, the impact of the conflict on the banking sector and on...

Room for Discussion’s last big guest has authored two international bestsellers, has gone viral after taking on the wealthy at Davos and has been hailed as the “Dutch Wunderkind of new ideas” by the Guardian.

Bastian Obermayer, one of Europe's most successful investigative journalists who was one of the leading author behind the Panama Papers, on his investigative research, meeting Edward Snowden and speaking truth to power.

"One of the most sustainable banks in the world" is how the Triodos bank advertises itself. How did they achieve this role? And will they be able to keep this role in the future? We will be answering these questions and many more in our interview with Triodos CEO Jeroen Rijpkema, the seasoned banker making the switch from the corporate big fish ABN Amro to the green Triodos. Why does a private ban...

The temperature rises in the Arctic as prehistoric ice sheets melt and nations edge ever closer to the brink of war. On the 7th of February 2022, the Dutch Ambassador to the Arctic Council, Rene van Hell, joined Room for Discussion to explore the current climate of the frozen far north. Van Hell discussed how the Arctic has emerged as Ground 0 for Climate Change, as raging Siberian wildfires and t...

Coby van der Linde has been the director of the Clingendael International Energy Programme since 2001. Clingendael is one of the major research institutes on the international developments of the energy sector. She is also a professor in Groningen, specialised in energy and geopolitics. She has followed the developments in the natural gas market for decades. From a time where the Netherlands was a...

Dr. Sergei Guriev is a famous Russian economist from North Ossetia. Until 2013, he was the rector of the New Economic School in Moscow. At the same time, he was also an economic advisor to Prime minister Medvedev. However, in 2013 his world was turned upside down: he had to flee Russia after being investigated by the government about cases concerning oil tycoon Mr. Khodorkovsky and opposition lead...

On the 5th of November at 13:00 Room for Discussion interviewed former leader of the PvdA and nowadays one of the architects of the European Green Deal; Diederik Samsom. We talked with him for one hour at the central hall of the E-building and in that time we will touch upon several topics within the Green Deal. First of all, together with Samsom, we discuss the package of measures the European Un...

Laura van Geest is bestuursvoorzitter van de Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM). We bespreken wat de AFM precies doet en hoe hun toezicht eruit ziet. We gaan het veelvuldig hebben over de aandelenmarkten en beleggen. Hoe staat de beurs er voor op het moment? Wat voor impact hebben bijvoorbeeld de coronacrisis, digitalisering, fintech en crypto’s en wat zijn de bijbehorende risico’s? Wat is de rol...

Op dinsdag 23 november om 13:00 uur interviewde Room for Discussion de Amsterdamse internist en huidig directeur van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk onderzoek: Marcel Levi! In de afgelopen jaren was hij directeur van maar liefst 5 gefuseerde ziekenhuizen in Londen en is de laatste jaren ook actief in de media waar hij graag aanschuift bij verschillende praatprogramma’s zoals OP1 e...

The era of Angela Merkel has come to an end. In all probability, Germany will have a new government before Christmas. And one of the key negotiators at the current coalition table is Otto Fricke. He has been a member of the Bundestag for the better part of two decades, serving as the FDP’s finance wizard. Not only has he been the chair of the Bundestag’s important budget committee for many years,...

Herman Tjeenk Willink (1942) is sinds 2012 minister van staat. Hij verwierf een positie boven de partijen door een lange carrière als onder meer voorzitter van de Eerste Kamer en vicepresident van de Raad van State. Tjeenk Willink was zes keer informateur bij kabinetsformaties en daarom is dit de uitgelezen kans om te reflecteren over de huidge staat van de nederlandse politiek. In zijn boek ‘Kan...

Listen to our new interview with the Ambassador of the United States to the Netherlands. Firstly, we will be addressing the uprising in the aftermath of the brutal killing of George Floyd, while then moving on to focus on domestic and foreign policy during and after this pandemic. For most people, it seems worrisome and obvious that the tensions between China and The United States are, and will co...

We welcomed Olivier Blanchard to Room for Discussion. Described by the Washington Post as 'The Smartest Economist You've Never Heard Of', Dr. Blanchard is as serious an economist as they come. He served as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund during the financial crisis and euro debt crises, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Senior Fellow at the Peterson...

Eindelijk is het zo ver! Na anderhalf jaar gaat Room for Discussion weer interviews houden op onze vertrouwde Chesterfieldbanken. Wiegel (1941) werd op 30-jarige leeftijd lijsttrekker van de VVD. Een partij die hij door zijn befaamde toespraken over 'de mensen in het land' voor het eerst meer dan 20 zetels liet halen tijdens de verkiezingen van een jaar later. Tijdens het kabinet-Den Uyl stond Wie...

Listen to Room for Discussion’s interview with one of the current leading political economist and author of critically-acclaimed “Why Nations Fail”; Daron Acemoglu. The interview will be 45 minutes and in that time we will cover two main topics. First of all, we will discuss his view on the political and economic development of China. Thereafter the discussion continues towards the European Union...