Mark Hillen: "Minister Adriaansens voert wet sociale ondernemingen niet uit"

Minister Micky Adriaansens of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy does not want to implement the law that gives social enterprises their own legal status, the BVm (Social Enterprise BV). So says Mark Hillen (1960) of Social Enterprise NL.

Hillen: "That law is in the Coalition Agreement but is still just sitting on the minister's desk. This is, of course, a neoliberal minister who really just doesn't feel it and doesn't want it. She has put her signature on the Coalition Agreement but she is not implementing it. That is not good for confidence in government. This whole discussion around the BVm is obviously taking far too long at ten years.”

Hillen previously had a negative experience with another VVD minister about separate status for companies with impact goals: with the prime minister himself. Hillen: “We once had a run-in in front of the Catshuis and talked to Mark Rutte there. Who said, 'In principle, I don't think the government should do anything, because that's what a liberal thinks.' We are now reaping the benefits of that. They have let a lot of things slide. We need a government that tries to lead from an ethical sense. That is missing.”

P+ spoke with Hillen following a special career move. He is stepping down as director-founder of Social Enterprise NL, but will remain with the social entrepreneurs' organization as Chief of Innovation. He will fill this new role partly from Seville, Spain.

“I handed over the keys.” Hillen tells P+. “I was the co-founder there, the president, the general manager. And now I'm an employee. And very curious to see how this is going to run.”

Economist Hillen has handed over the management of “his” social enterprise organization to Stefan Panhuijsen and Leonie Bank. He himself says of this: “Stefan and Leonie are going their separate ways now. I still have to get used to it. Not that I bother them much with unsolicited comments anymore. It's more like: I don't hear much from them. But that's only natural.”

At least he doesn't want to be like other retiring managers who say, “I don't have to work anymore. Hillen: “I'm really fundamentally opposed to the whole concept of retirement. It's super fun to keep working with young people. Playing golf three times a week is not a good idea, I would urge all my contemporaries to keep contributing to this society until they are 78. I have been told that something happens to your white blood cells then. It makes you feel old.”

Read Click here the full interview with Hillen in which he looks back on his career and the development of Social Enterprise NL.