The Nederlandse Loterij (Dutch Lottery) has announced that Arjon Blok, currently chief financial officer of the Dutch national lottery operator, will become its new chief executive.

Blok will take up the position no later than September 1, 2024. Current CEO Niels Onkenhout’s term at the Dutch Lottery ends on this date.

Blok, also co-director of the Dutch Lottery, has served as the organization’s CFO since late 2016. He also served in this position on an interim basis before taking on the position full-time.

He previously worked for RWE, where, among other things, he served as CFO for the RWE retail division. Blok also spent time at Essent, NS Reizifers and Nederlandse Staatsloterij before merging with De Lotto to form the Dutch Lottery in 2016.

By the way, Onkenhout led this merger shortly after being appointed CEO.

“First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the board of the Nederlandse Loterij, with Niels as CEO and Blok as CFO,” said Alexander Pechtold, Chairman of the Dutch Lottery.

“Over the last seven years, they have helped develop the organization into a healthy home for strong gaming brands, where the interests of the gamer always come first through a strong responsible gaming policy and a growing contribution back to society .”

Blok is the “ideal” candidate for the position of CEO

Pechtold added that Blok stood out as an “ideal” candidate when discussing a successor to Onkenhout.

Pechtold said: “Under Arjan’s leadership, the organization continued to deliver positive financial results following the merger in 2016. He has also made an important contribution to accelerating digital transformation.”

“We are confident that with this new board – complemented by a newly hired CFO – we will have a strong long-term team to lead the Dutch lottery into the next chapter.”

The Dutch lottery will now begin a search to find and appoint a new CFO.