Eduard Ponds is Head of Strategy in the Finance Department of ABP Pension Fund in the Netherlands. He is involved with strategic issues in pension plan design, ALM, and risksharing. Dr Eduard Ponds is also associated with Tilburg University (Netspar) and the University of Amsterdam as lecturer and researcher. His research interests are related to pension fund issues, in particular risk-sharing (Supplementary Pensions, Intergenerational Risk-sharing and Welfare, Tilburg University, 1995), pension plan design (Pensions, 2003), and generational accounting (Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 2003). He is the author of many publications in Dutch related to the pension debate in the Netherlands. Email: e.ponds@abp.nl

Johan J. De Deken is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Before coming to Amsterdam he taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Recent publications include ‘Christian democracy, social democracy and the paradoxes of earnings-related social security’, International Journal of Social Welfare (2002) and ‘Pensions and non wage labour costs: modelling a decade of reforms in Germany’, Journal of European Social Policy (2002). His main current research interests include the assessment of the costs of mandated and private social security and issues of pension fund governance. Address is Department of Sociology and Anthropology OZ Achterburgwal 185 1012 DK Amsterdam, Netherlands. Email: J.J. DeDeken@uva.nl

Bart Van Riel is Senior Policy Officer at the Netherlands Social-Economic Council (SER). He was involved in preparing several SER-advisory reports on pensions, population ageing, and economic and social aspects of European integration. He also participates in the European Studies Programme at Leiden University and is a fellow of the Amsterdam Institute of Advanced Labour Studies. Recent publications include (together with Anton Hemerijck and Jelle Visser) ‘Is there a Dutch way to pension reform?’, in Gordon L. Clark and N.Whiteside (eds.), Pension Security in the 21st Century (Oxford University Press, 2003) and (together with Kees Goudswaard) ‘Social protection in Europe: do we need more coordination?’ (Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken, 2004). Address is Social and Economic Council, P.O. Box 90405, 2509 LK, The Hague, The Netherlands Email: b.van.riel@ser.nl