The Volkskrant publishes its lists of the 200 most influential people in the Netherlands every year. The list is, the paper says, a ranking of the ‘governing elite’ drawn from a network of 23,000 people. Here’s the top 10 of the 2013 list.

The oldest and the most influential

1. Bernard Wientjes (70), leader of the employers association VNO-NCW and leader of the list for the fourth year in a row. Wientjes is also a member of the SER advisory book and the Dutch central bank’s governing council.

2. Hans Wijers, former economic affairs minister and chief executive of Akzo Nobel. Wijers (62) is now president of the supervisory board at Ajax and Heineken and chairman of the national heritage body Natuurmonumenten.

3. Gerrit Zalm (61) former finance minister and now chief executive of nationalised bank ABN Amro. Also a member of Shell’s supervisory board.

The man in charge of the money

4. Klaas Knot (46), president of the Dutch central bank.

5. Jeroen van der Veer (66), former Shell chief executive, now chairman of the supervisory board of ING and Philips, and at Delft University of Technology.

6. Niek-Jan van Kesteren (61), member of the board at the employers organisation VNO-NCW and small business lobby group MKB Nederland. Also a member of SER and the union and employer body STAR.

Mr Amsterdam

7. Eberhard van der Laan (58), mayor of Amsterdam.

8. Dick Benschop (56), president of Shell Nederland. Former junior foreign affairs minister with a string of other supervisory roles.

9. Jos Nijhuis (56), chief executive of the Schiphol airport authority. Chairman of the supervisory board at the national ballet and supervisory board member at SNS Reaal.

The only woman – and in 10th place

10. Laura van Geest (51), head of the government’s macro-economic think tank CPB.  Was thesaurier-general and treasury chief.

You can find out who the other 190 influential folk are here