Dirk U. Stikker

Dirk U.Stikker was Born in 1887. Having studied law at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, he held various appointments in banking and industry between 1922 and 1948. In 1946 he founded the Party for Freedom and Democracy (of which he became Chairman) and from 1946 to 1948 he was a member of the First Chamber of the States General (Senate). From 1948 to 1952, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and in 1949 represented the Netherlands at the Round Table Conference on the status of Indonesia and the Netherlands West Indies. In 1950 he became Political Mediator of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and later Chairman of this Organisation. He was Ambassador in London from 1952 to 1958, and later Ambassador to the Republic of Iceland.

Mr. Stikker was appointed Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the North Atlantic Council and to the OEEC in July 1958. In April 1961 the North Atlantic Council chose him to succeed Paul-Henri Spaak as Secretary General of NATO and Chairman of the North Atlantic Council. He relinquished this post in 1964 and was succeeded by Manlio Brosio. Dirk Stikker died in 1979.