Frits Philips

“For you, sir, Philips is a brand, for me it is my name.” What does this rebuke by Frits Philips say about him? Arrogance? Self-awareness like his father’s ‘they will know who they have in front of them’? Perhaps gratitude, or perhaps the burden of an imposed responsibility?
Martijn van Empel highlights the life of Frits Philips, the man who was expected to follow in the footsteps of his famous father Anton. An almost impossible task that he accomplished in his own unique way.
Van Empel knows how to explain the person Frits Philips well: the burden of comparison with people around him he admires, but still his own enthusiasm and courage. And in all this something from Juliana’s famous statement: ‘who am I that I can do this?’

Martijn van Empel (1941) combined practice and university as a specialist in European law. He wrote, among other things, a standard work on the European patent and a biography of Ivo Samkalden (mayor of Amsterdam).