Dick de Graaff, MA (48) has been appointed the new Director of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA) effective 1 January 2019. He is succeeding René Kouwenberg who will retire on the same date.
PTA, which coordinates the efficient processing of cruise ships and receives their passengers, said that De Graaff is very familiar with the cruise sector and knows the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam inside and out.
"He has served as PTA’s Commercial Director since December 2004 and in this role has been responsible for the growth in the number of cruise calls and for operating the passenger terminal as a venue for trade fairs and events," he said.
Together with Kouwenberg and his team he achieved that PTA won the 2016 Port of the Year Award, the Oscar in the cruise world. In the same year and in 2017 PTA received also the Cruise Critic Award, a public award for the best cruise destination.
Dick de Graaff gained experience in the hotel industry and congress and event venue sector. Before joining PTA, he held positions at Intercontinental Hotels Group, RAI Amsterdam and NH-hotel Krasnapolsky. He studied at the Hoge Hotelschool Maastricht and earned a Master’s Degree in Strategy, Communication & Organization at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2006.