University Secretary Zaanen to leave the UvA

Mieke Zaanen has had a long career at the UvA. As a lawyer, she has worked for many years at various locations and in various departments, always in an administrative support role. She is a familiar face both inside and outside the Maagdenhuis, but has now opted for that other prestigious location of and for science: the Trippenhuis on Kloveniersburgwal, headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

“This is a wonderful challenge” says Zaanen in an initial reaction. “The KNAW is a wonderful institute, but a slightly different world from the UvA. Thanks to the UvA, I am familiar with the world of research, but now that I am going to work at the KNAW, I will also be dealing with the society of distinguished professors and the enthusiastic scientists of De Jonge Akademie. The KNAW is an institute with so many extraordinary people. It really is a gift that I get to work for them. It’s coming a little sooner than I had planned. At the UvA, I felt very close to Board President Louise Gunning and always thought: she’s stepping down in two years, so I’ll start looking elsewhere then. But this position at the KNAW won’t be available in two years’ time, so I’m going now. But it also hurts. Yes, it hurts. I’ll miss everyone terribly, but I don’t want to become an ‘institution’ either, so I’m leaving now.”

Playmaker

Lawyer Mieke Zaanen (1954) perhaps had the perfect ‘background’ for the politically sensitive post of University Secretary. In that role, she is the (general) director of the university and stands alongside the Executive Board, which is supported and advised by the University Secretary. In that role, she also oversaw the UvA’s central services. She became secretary shortly after Karel van der Toorn took office as chairman of the Executive Board; prior to that, she had been director of operations for the Faculty of Science under Dean Walter Hoogland. She also served for some time as the UvA’s confidential advisor.

A sense of discretion and political acumen run like a thread through the roles she has held. But always in the background. “As university secretary, you have to push the Executive Board forward,” she says. “That is your role. And I am someone who sticks to my role. I commit to the role I have.” Laughing: “I was always the playmaker at the Maagdenhuis.” In an earlier interview with Folia, she put it this way: “I explain why I do something, and once I’ve made a decision, I go for it. If people disagree with me, that’s fine. But that doesn’t mean I’ll change course.”

Accommodation

In her new role at the KNAW, she is expected to be somewhat more visible to the outside world than is currently the case.

“I hope to be able to mobilise the intellectual resources of the KNAW and bring them to the fore, following in the footsteps of Presidents Frits van Oostrom, Robbert Dijkgraaf and Hans Clevers, who have done and continue to do so. And furthermore, I hope that I can make a contribution to the internal organisation of and within the Trippenhuis.”

As for how and whether the UvA and KNAW will collaborate on accommodation, Zaanen prefers not to say too much about that just yet. “It’s too early to say anything sensible about it. I’m going to listen first. But yes, KNAW – UvA – VU, it would be a wonderful connection.”

Zaanen says she is leaving behind “a wonderful organization” at the UvA. “Everything is rock-solid; not much can go wrong. I’ve had absolutely brilliant people around me all these years. They will seamlessly take over what I’m leaving behind.” She won’t say who her successor should be. Regarding the role she is now leaving behind, she says: ‘In the future – and I mean the future – it might perhaps be combined with that of secretary of the university of applied sciences (HvA).”