Frits Philips

Frits Philips, full name Frederik Jacques Philips, was born on April 16, 1905, in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the only son of Anton Philips and Anna Philips-de Jongh. His uncle Gerard PhilipsGerard PhilipsGerard Philips (1858–1942) was a Dutch mechanical engineer and entrepreneur who in 1891 founded Philips & Co in Eindhoven with his father, Frederik Philips, the forerunner of the electronics company Philips, and in 1914 established the company’s physics research laboratory.Open the full entry and his grandfather Frederik Philips had founded Philips in 1891.⁠[1][2][3]

His great-grandparents were Lion Philips and Sophie Pressburg; his great-grandmother Sophie’s sister Henriëtte married the German jurist Heinrich Marx and was the mother of Karl Marx.⁠[4]

In 1911 the young Frits was invited to kick off a game of the Philips football team. On August 31, 1913, he attended the meeting at which PSVPSV EindhovenPSV Eindhoven is a professional football club founded in 1913 by Philips employees in Eindhoven, the Netherlands; it plays at the Philips Stadion, won the 1978 UEFA Cup and the 1988 European Cup, and as of 2026 had been Dutch league champion 27 times.Open the full entry was officially founded, and he remained a lifelong supporter of the club founded by his father.⁠[5]

In 1929 he earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical College of Delft (Technische Hogeschool Delft, now Delft University of Technology). That same year he married Sylvia van Lennep; the couple had seven children.⁠[6][7]

In 1930, at 25, Frits joined the family business as an industrial engineer; his first job was handling production planning at the Philite plastics factory in Eindhoven’s Strijp district.⁠[6][8]

In 1934 he was introduced to the Oxford Group, the forerunner of Moral Re-Armament, and he later regularly attended industrial conferences at the movement’s center in Caux, Switzerland, which opened in 1946.⁠[7]

In 1935 he was appointed assistant managing director and joined the board; in 1939 he became managing director.⁠[7][2]

After Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and his father, Anton, and other family members left for the United States, Frits stayed in Eindhoven, effectively taking control of the company’s operations in occupied territory and keeping it running under German authority. He worked to protect employees’ jobs and the lives of Jewish workers and provided hot meals for all employees.⁠[6][7][9]

In 1943 the German occupiers forced him to open a Philips workshop inside the concentration camp near Vught, which gave work to detained Jewish Philips employees. He argued to the Germans that these Jewish workers were indispensable to production, delaying their deportation to Auschwitz. Of the 469 Jewish prisoners who worked there, 382 survived the war. The company also deliberately made faulty radio valves and concealed its capacity to make weapons.⁠[1][7][10]

In May 1943, after an anti-Nazi strike involving Philips workers, he was arrested by the Germans and held hostage in the Vught concentration camp under threat of execution, and was released several months later.⁠[6][1][11][8]

In 1961 he succeeded his brother-in-law Frans Otten as the fourth president of Philips and chairman of its Board of Management, serving until 1971. The decade is regarded as one of the company’s most successful periods: Philips expanded in Asia and the Americas, encouraged scientific research, launched the Compact Cassette, achieved a breakthrough with the electric razor and began producing integrated circuits. He was especially fond of the Stirling (hot-air) engine, which Philips failed to turn into a commercial success.⁠[6][8][12]

He retired in 1971, handing the presidency to another brother-in-law, Henk van Riemsdijk, and remained on the supervisory board until 1977.⁠[6][8]

Out of concern over looming trade conflicts, he launched the Caux Round Table in 1986, bringing together industrialists from Japan, Europe and the United States twice a year to promote mutual understanding and responsible entrepreneurship; its Principles for Business were published in 1994.⁠[12][7]

His wife, Sylvia, died in 1992.⁠[1][7]

In 1996 Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations and awarded him its medal for his wartime actions on behalf of Dutch Jews. He said he was no hero and that many others had helped save lives.⁠[11][2][1]

On April 16, 2005, he turned 100, as PSV reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. Throughout his life he attended PSV home matches whenever he could, from a regular seat in the stands of the Philips Stadion rather than a skybox, and he was present for all 18 of the club’s Dutch championship titles.⁠[6][9][5]

Frits Philips died at his home in Eindhoven on December 5, 2005, aged 100, of pneumonia and complications from a fall. His family held a private funeral for him in Eindhoven on December 12. He was survived by three sons and three daughters; another daughter had died before him.⁠[2][1][12][7]

A bronze statue of him stands on the Markt in central Eindhoven, where he was known as “Meneer Frits.” In April 2024 Martijn van Empel, an author who had known him personally, published a new biography focused on his personal life, drawing on material provided by the Philips family.⁠[13][6][9]

Philips: Official website: https://www.philips.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[3]