Ernst Kuipers has extensive experience in healthcare, medical research, and government as clinician, healthcare executive, and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands. He will next serve as Vice-President Research for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
As the Netherlands’ Health Minister from 2022 to 2024, Prof Kuipers led the country’s plan to improve pandemic and disaster preparedness during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also focused on a broad integrated care agenda and nationwide healthcare system reform to keep healthcare sustainable and affordable. To support this process, Ernst among others passed a law on electronic health data exchange. He further closed a Green Deal with the healthcare sector to increase its resilience and reduce its ecological footprint.
Before becoming Minister, Ernst long served Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands as CEO and earlier as Professor of Medicine and Department Chair. As CEO, he led the transformation to a new ‘smart’ hospital that forms part of the European University Hospital Alliance. Ernst was also Member of the Governing Board of the National University Health System in Singapore and a member of the Board of Curacao Medical Center. He further acted as Chair of the Dutch National Emergency Medicine Network, which played a major role during the covid pandemic. Ernst earned a medical degree, and completed training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in the Netherlands. He subsequently worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN, and then joined Erasmus MC.
