Willem van Mechelen - Biography#

Willem van Mechelenhas a unique combined background in physical education, human movement sciences, epidemiology, (occupational and sports) medicine and public health/primary care. After a career as classroom physical education teacher and occupational physician, he completed his PhD at age 40 years. From that time onwards he engaged himself seriously in science. His research group, which he has built up from scratch in the past 20+ years, has an international reputation and a leading position in the two fields of social medicine he represents: occupational medicine and public health/sports medicine. In Occupational Medicine he has evaluated and introduced graded-exercise programs as highly cost-effective means for return-to-work of workers on sick leave, as well as worksite lifestyle interventions for the entire workforce. He has also been engaged in descriptive and aetiological studies on f.i. fatigue in shift work in the Norwegian offshore industry. IHe has developed a large number of preventive interventions, applied in occupational and sports medicine, in primary care/general practice and in care for the elderly. He has initiated a number of Academic Workplaces in Occupational and Insurance Medicine and Youth Health Care/Public Health, in which stakeholder involvement is the cornerstone. Willem has ample (inter-)national experience as a member of expert committees and professional boards. He is an often-asked speaker at international scientific meetings. He has received a number of prestigious (inter-) national prizes and awards, such as the American College of Sports Medicine Citation Award and the Burger-penning of the Dutch College of Occupational Physicians (NVAB). He is an honorary member of the same college, as well as of the Royal Dutch Association of Physical Education Teachers (KVLO). He also has a prize named after him by the Arbo Unie, was awarded in 2017 an honorary doctorate degree from the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium and was made a member of the Wall of Fame of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the same year. In 2022 he was knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion, on the authority of the King of The Netherlands.

Willem has, as former director of both the EMGO+ Institute and the Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute of VU/VUmc/AMC/UvA, ample experience in all aspects of managing and governing a large professional organisation, including aspects of regular evaluations according to Standard Evaluation Protocols of the KNAW (research) and the NVAO (education). In addition, he has been multiple times a member of international panels evaluating the quality of research and educational programs.

Willem van Mechelenhas been from 2007-2016 in parallel member of the board of Division VI (600 fte) of VU University Medical Center, head of the department of Public and Occupational Health (125 fte) and co-director of the multidisciplinary EMGO Institute for Primary Care Research (600 fte). After the merger in 2016 of VUmc with the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam he became director of the Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute (1200 fte).

In addition, he has set-up in 2009 an internet-driven VUmc spin-off (occupational) health care company, Evalua Nederland B.V. (Ltd.), which was sold in 2019 to a Finnish stock-exchange listed company (Terveystalo Oy.). From 2014 to 2022 he was a non-executive board member of Arbo Unie B.V. (Ltd.), a large Dutch profit-for-purpose occupational health care services company. Currently he is non-executive board member of NL Actief (i.e. the umbrella organisation of the Dutch Fitness Industry) and as an independent chairman of the Stichting SBCA, in which the Ministry of Social Affairs, the boards of FNV, VNO NCW and OVAL are represented.

It should also be noted that in his role as an occupational physician, between 1982 and 1992 Willem had regular encounters on (occupational) health matters with managerial and board room level representatives of the companies he served for. Willem was a member of the Sports Council of the City of Amsterdam (i.e. ‘Amsterdamse Sportraad’) from 2013-2022, was the initiating chairman of the Dutch Association for Human Movement Sciences (Vereniging voor Bewegingswetenschappen) and was board member of the Dutch Sports Medicine Association (Vereniging voor Sportgeneeskunde) and of the Dutch Epidemiological Society (Vereniging voor Epidemiologie).

Between 2020-2024, Willem was at request of the Ministry of Social Affairs (SZW) and UWV chairing a high-level committee that needed to advise on the short-term and mid-term future of the disability pension claims system (interim management letters were send by the Minister of Social affairs end Employability to the parliament on April 9, 2021; ref. #2021-0000057175; on August 26, 2022: https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/brieven_regering/detail?id=2022Z15818&did=2022D33127; on 28-4-2023 https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2023/04/28/voortgangsbrief-maatregelen-sociaal-medisch-beoordelen-en-wia-hardheden) and on October 6, 2023 (https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2023/10/06/voortgangsbrief-maatregelen-sociaal-medisch-beoordelen-en-relevante-wia-onderwerpen). In this committee the executive boards of UWV, the Ministry of SZW and the scientific association of insurance physicians (NVVG) were represented.