Interview Reinier Zwitserloot, ceo Wintershall

Keeping the eye on the ball

Reinier Zwitserloot may not be among the world’s most famous corporate executives, he is one of the most influential. In his eight years as head of German gas and oil producer Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, the Dutchman, who is retiring on the first of October, managed to build up an impressive network of political contacts in Germany and Russia. And he grew the business. ‘If you really want something in life’, he says, ‘you can get it.’