The former top executive of Philips, Cor Boonstra, passed away in his hometown of Amsterdam on the night of Friday to Saturday at the age of 87. His family announced this to the press agency ANP. Boonstra led the electronics company from 1996 to 2001.
Under Boonstra, the headquarters of the Eindhoven-based company were moved to Amsterdam. In addition, Philips made a significant leap in stock market value under Boonstra’s leadership.
Born in Leeuwarden in 1938, Boonstra was brought to Philips in 1994 by the then chairman Jan Timmer. Under Boonstra’s leadership, the “Let’s make things better” campaign was created. This shifted the emphasis in advertising from the products to the Philips brand itself.
During Boonstra’s tenure, Philips focused on LCD screens and LED lighting. In 2001, the year he stepped down, the company presented the Senseo coffee machine. Boonstra was succeeded at Philips by Gerard Kleisterlee, who shifted the company’s course towards healthcare.
Before joining Philips, Boonstra held high management positions at, among others, the Dairy Trade Company, which later became SRV, and consumer goods group Sara Lee. He began his career at Unilever, where he started working after completing his secondary education in his late teens.
The magazine Management team repeatedly named Boonstra the best executive in the Netherlands. That image took a hit when Boonstra was accused of insider trading at the beginning of this century. The case revolved around an investment in shares of entertainment group Endemol, just before the Spanish Telefónica made a bid for that company. He was acquitted, but he did receive a fine of 135,000 euros because he had not reported trading in shares and bonds of supermarket group Ahold when he was a supervisor there.
In 1998, his wife Hansje Boonstra-Raatjes survived an attempted kidnapping. She was found seriously injured in Hoek van Holland by the police.