IMF Archives: Finding Aids
Office of the Managing Director Records
H. Johannes Witteveen Papers
Date(s): 1973-1978 |
Context
Name of Creator: Witteveen, H. Johannes
Administrative/Biographical history: Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen was the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s fifth Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board, serving from 1973 to 1978. He was born on June 12, 1921, in Zeist, the Netherlands. He graduated from the Rotterdam School of Economics obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1947.
In his early career he was: Chief of Department at the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (1945-1948); Professor at the Rotterdam School of Economics, teaching economic policy and business cycle theory (1948-1963); Minister of Finance in the Dutch cabinet (1963-1965); Member for the Liberal Party of the Second Chamber, the directly elected lower house of the Dutch Parliament (1965-1967); First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (1967-1971), and in 1971 he became a member of the First Chamber (Senate) of the Dutch Parliament.
From 1971 to 1973 Witteveen also held other positions: member of the Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s high level group on trade and related problems; advisor and member of the board of the Robeco-group, an investment trust; advisory member of the board of Unilever, N.V.; member of the board of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company N.V., and member of the board of Daiwa Europe N.V. He was also vice-president of the international religious and philosophical Sufi Movement.
On July 31, 1973 Witteveen was appointed Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the IMF, assuming his duties on September 1, 1973.
During his term in office, discussions on reform (in the Interim Committee and within the IMF) and the adoption of the Second Amendment were significant issues. Other issues were the Stand-by Arrangements with the United Kingdom and Italy and the establishment and operation of the IMF's Oil, Compensatory Financing, and Extended Fund Facilities.
Witteveen received a number of decorations and orders from the Netherlands and other countries, including Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Luxembourg and Yugoslavia.
Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen did not accept a second term as IMF's Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board and left office on June 16, 1978.
Archival history: This material comes from four sets of material retired from the Office of the Managing Director. Two sets of Country files (1975-1978) and Visits files (1978) were integrated into Central files while the remaining files constitute the present sub-fonds.
In February 2007, a linear foot of material found in the Jacques de Larosière Papers, related to H. Johannes Witteveen, were filed with the Witteveen Papers and resulted in a new arrangement and new series.
Content and structure
Scope and content: Sub-fonds consists of four series: Chronological Files; Correspondence; Meetings, Speeches and Travel; and Subject Files, created by the Office of the Managing Director H. Johannes Witteveen.
Conditions of Access and Use
Language/script of material: Dutch, English
Associated Materials
Related units of description: Central Files (Country files and Visits files part of original RM accessions were integrated in the 1980's in Central Files).
Notes
Note: This set of records was originally arranged into subject files and chronological files. The subject files were arranged into: Annual Meeting files; General correspondence (mostly acknowledging publications and papers sent to the Managing Director); Letters of thanks; Conferences, meetings or invitations files (declined); Travel arrangement files and other smaller biographical or office related files. These files were rearranged into four series in order to standardize arrangement with the records of the other managing directors.
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