Wim Pijbes is director of the Rotterdam based philanthropic foundation Droom en Daad (Dream and Do). He is art historian and emeritus General Director of the Rijksmuseum. His initiatives there include the museum’s transformation and grand reopening in April 2013. With the reopening of the Rijksmuseum, he launched Rijksstudio and the open-content museum; the first digital application to offer images of the complete museum’s collection to everyone, free of charge. His strategy made the Rijksmuseum the largest museum on the web worldwide. He initiated the transformation of the Rijksmuseum gardens into a beloved green open air gallery for free sculpture exhibitions. The museum restaurant was awarded a Michelin star since 2016. Pijbes published two children books, lectures and writes extensively on art, the role of museums in society and philantropy.

Wim Pijbes holds a position of the Humanitas Professorship in the History of Art at the University of Cambridge. He is Board member of Voorlinden Museum and Gardens and Global Chairman of Vetting for TEFAF in Maastricht and New York.

He was Chair of the Supervisory Board of Droog Design, Board member of the Rembrandt Society and trustee of TEFAF. Pijbes was jury member for the new Stedelijk Museum (2007), the British Art Fund Museum of the Year (2014), the Libris Prize for Literature (2015), the Netherlands Best Building of the Year (2015) and the Antwerp Maritime Museum (2017)