Financial Times: Dunn and dusted among the Dutch: “helped Anglo-Dutch business relations during the recent turbulent times at Royal Dutch/Shell.” (ShellNews.net)

By Clay Harris

Published: August 4 2004 04:00 | Last updated: August 4 2004 04:00

Doug Dunn is a bigger name in the Netherlands than in his native Britain, having steered ASML, the world's leading chipmaking equipment group, through a tricky semiconductor slump.

Before that, he worked for years at Philips, building up good feeling that has helped Anglo-Dutch business relations during the recent turbulent times at Royal Dutch/Shell.

But Dunn is stepping down at the end of the year and ASML is candid enough to admit no one has heard of its new chief executive.

Not only is Eric Meurice a Frenchman; something of a novelty in the top echelons of Dutch business, but he comes from outside the semiconductor sector from Thomson, the consumer electronics group.

The jovial Dunn will be a tough act to follow but Mudlark's man in klompen hears that, while Meurice is no media star, he is apparently "tons of fun".

In that respect, he's a chip off the old block.