Anton Philips

Anton Frederik Philips was born on March 14, 1874, in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, the youngest son of Frederik Philips (1830–1900), a banker and tobacco and coffee merchant; his mother was Maria Heyligers. His brother Gerard Philips was sixteen years older.⁠[1][2][3][4]

His grandparents were Lion Philips and Sophie Pressburg; his grandmother Sophie’s sister Henriëtte married the German jurist Heinrich Marx and was the mother of Karl Marx.⁠[2]

Highly intelligent but an indifferent student, he attended the Openbare Handelsschool (public commercial school) in Amsterdam. Before joining the family firm he spent three years in Amsterdam and half a year in London, gaining commercial experience at stock broking firms and on the London stock exchange.⁠[2][4][5][6]

In early January 1895 the twenty-year-old Anton came to Eindhoven at his father’s request to help his brother Gerard with the commercial side of the family business, initially agreeing only to a temporary six-month assignment. He traveled by train selling light bulbs and within five years had built a network of 28 agencies around the world.⁠[4]

Outgoing, sporty, frank and generous, he was in many respects the opposite of his reserved brother, and he soon proved an outstanding salesman skilled at building friendly business relationships. The brothers established an autocratic management style while providing employees with housing, sports and healthcare.⁠[2][7][8]

In 1910 he traveled to the United States to secure machinery for producing metal wire lamps. After the company’s physics laboratory was founded in 1914, Anton backed its head, Gilles Holst, in securing the laboratory’s independence. From 1918 the company expanded into X-ray tubes and later into radio.⁠[4][2]

In 1921 he and his wife, Anna Philips-de Jongh, set up the Philips-de Jongh Recreation Fund. Anna, full name Anna Henriette Elisabeth Maria de Jongh, was born in Amersfoort in 1878 and died in Eindhoven in 1970. The couple had one son, Frits PhilipsFrits PhilipsFrits Philips (1905–2005) was a Dutch engineer and entrepreneur, the only son of Anton Philips, who served as president of Philips from 1961 to 1971; he stayed in Eindhoven to run the company during the German occupation in World War II and was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 1996.Open the full entry, and daughters; their eldest son-in-law, Frans Otten, and youngest son-in-law, Henk van Riemsdijk, later rose to the company’s top leadership.⁠[4][3][2][9]

After Gerard retired in 1922, Anton continued alone as director of the company. In 1928 the company doubled its profits, and in 1930, despite the recession, it sold about 300,000 radios. In 1929 he shook hands with the company’s 20,000th employee in Eindhoven.⁠[4][5]

On July 6, 1939, Anton stepped down as president of the company, handing leadership to his son-in-law Frans Otten, and became chairman of the Supervisory Board. Just before World War II broke out, Philips moved its headquarters to Curaçao, keeping the company out of German control.⁠[4][7]

After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, Anton, Frans Otten and other family members went to the United States and returned after the war, while his son Frits stayed in Eindhoven and effectively ran the company’s operations in occupied territory.⁠[9][10]

To mark his 75th birthday on March 14, 1949, the sculptor Oswald Wenckebach was commissioned to make a statue of him. The bronze and granite statue was unveiled on May 15, 1951, by his grandchildren Fritsje Philips and Anneke van Riemsdijk, and in January 1977 it was moved to the Stationsplein in front of Eindhoven station.⁠[1][11]

He remained chairman of the Supervisory Board until a few months before his death, and died in Eindhoven in 1951.⁠[4][1]

Philips: Official website: https://www.philips.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[8]