Maurice de Hond

De Hond studied human geography at the University of Amsterdam, obtaining a degree in 1971. He worked for the university, as assistant with the Social Geografisch Instituut, but became a project leader for Interview-NSS in 1973. He founded Cebeon with Hedy d’Ancona in 1975, a market research firm targeting the non-profit sector, which he left in 1980 to become a director at Interview-NSS, later a commissioner until 1999. Starting in the mid-80s, De Hond started doing consultancy work for various companies, including Vendex (for which he led the computer department Microcomputer Club Nederland (MCN) of the Vroom & Dreesmann department store and the Dixons electricals store in the 1980s), ITT and Wegener. In 1998, he was one of the founders of Newconomy, an internet start-up, which after a stock exchange listing in 2000, saw a market cap of ?400 million, but sequently lost much of its market value. Eventually, De Hond had to resign from his leadership position. He now polls through his own company, and internet site Peil.nl.