Dutch Design Week announces new director
News: Dutch Design Week has announced its new director as business manager and consultant Martijn Paulen.
He will be tasked with providing financial stability to the annual Eindhoven event after an audit last year revealed that Capital D, its publicly funded parent body, had racked up losses of €945,000.
Paulen, who is director of innovation and learning strategies at TiasNimbas Business School, an institution with campuses across the Netherlands, takes over from interim director Bas Braad, who was appointed in December to replace creative director Hans Robertus and business director Robert-Jan Marringa.
Capital D has now obtained additional financing to cover last year's deficit and fund this year's Dutch Design Week and the Dutch Design Awards, the Eindhoven organisation announced. The new funding will also enable Capital D to continue running two European schemes – digital media project SmartCulture and design initiative PROUD.
Eindhoven's design community has undergone a turbulent year, with Design Academy Eindhoven last month appointing graphic designer Thomas Widdershoven as its new creative director after a period of turmoil that saw the departure of school's chair Anne Mieke Eggenkamp and the resignation and subsequent return of the heads of the three masters courses.
Our coverage of last October's Dutch Design Week included a furniture production line set up in an old factory and a lamp that can cast coloured shadows – see all news from Dutch Design Week 2012.