FIH Executive Director Hans Bertels Retires

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announces that agreement has been reached for the retirement of Hans Bertels as the Executive Director of the FIH as of 31 March 2008 after performing the job for just more than 12.5 years.

The decision of the retirement of the FIH Executive Director was announced during the FIH Executive Board meeting in New Delhi, India on Friday 9 November 2007.

The 63-years old Dutchman Bertels started in his position with the FIH on 1 July 1995 in Brussels, Belgium, where at that time the FIH Headquarters were based. The FIH moved its Headquarters from Brussels to Lausanne, Switzerland as of 1 January 2005.

Under Bertels’ leadership, the FIH became more and more a professional organization with a growing staff from 4 to 14 colleagues at this moment, most of them based at the FIH Offices in Lausanne.

Before joining the FIH in 1995, Bertels was the Director of the Elite Sports Department of the Dutch National Olympic Committee (NOC*NSF). In this position, he also was the Deputy Chef de Mission of the Dutch Olympic Team at the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992 and 1994.

‘We sincerely regret his retirement’, FIH President Els van Breda Vriesman stated. ‘But this has come at the right time for him to start a different life with his family and his hobbies. Hans has been extremely loyal and cooperative to the FIH and the world of hockey. We sincerely thank him for his dedication and efforts.’

The FIH will start the recruitment procedure for the successor of Bertels in the next couple of weeks.