Jan F. Van Eck   [1963]

Industrial/Commercial Leader

Jan F. Van Eck was born in New York City in 1963. He was the son of John C. and Sigrid Van Eck. His father, John C. Van Eck had founded Van Eck Global in 1955.

Van Eck attended Williams College, the alma mater of his father and graduated in 1985 with a degree in Economics. He later attended Stanford University and earned a J.D. in 1991. A year later, in 1992, he joined his father’s investment firm, Van Eck Global, a mutual funds management firm with holdings of about $ 35 billion in 2014.

Shortly after joining the firm, Van Eck and his younger brother Derek Van Eck were appointed co-managers of the firm because their father had reached the advanced age of 80 in 1995, and apparently decided to retire.

The brother Derek Van Eck passed away in 2010 at the young age of 46 and Jan Van Eck then became the CEO and Director of Van Eck Associates Corporation. In 2014 he also held the positions of Director and President of Van Eck Securities Corporation, Director and President of Van Eck Absolute Return Advisors Corporation, and President and Chief Executive Officer and Trustee of Market Vectors ETF Trust.

During his tenure Van Eck created a variety of international, emerging markets and commodity-related strategies in mutual fund, ETF, and alternative investment formats. He also serves on the Investment Committee for Van Eck VIP Multi-Managers Alternatives Fund.

In 2013 Van Eck was the finalist for Fund Leader of the year, Institutional Investor’s Mutual Industry Awards. Earlier, in 1990 he held a fellowship at the Council of Institutional Investors, focusing on shareholder rights.

Between 1994 and 1998 Van Eck established a management joint venture with Shenyin Wanguo Securities, one of the largest securities firms in China.

Jan Van Eck is married to Cynthia Van Eck and the couple has four children. Jan Van Eck’s grandfather was Baron Jan Carel Van Eck who was the founder and president of the American branch of the Royal Dutch Shell Corporation, a Dutch-British international oil giant. The grandfather was born in the Netherlands.

REFERENCES

Van Eck Global website

Other information was derived from family correspondence and from private memoirs, all supplied by Van Eck family.

 

E-BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON; GOOGLE: Kindle Store Pegels

 

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS, CURRENT AND HISTORIC

EIGHT PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE ROOSEVELTS, VANDERBILTS AND OTHERS, 2015

FIFTEEN PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE VAN BURENS, KOCH BROTHERS, VOORHEES AND OTHERS, 2015

PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, 2015

 

DUTCH PEGELS INVOLVED IN WARS

ALLIED EUROPE CAMPAIGN—1944/1945: TACTICAL MISTAKES, 2017

THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS: MEMOIRS, 2017

FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812, 2015

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