# Former Volksbank chief to run Groningen AI factory

> Martijn Gribnau, who led the Volksbank from 2020 to 2024, becomes director of the Dutch AI factory in Groningen, whose supercomputer is due to be running in early 2028.

Economy · published 2026-11-05 09:39 · https://nlnow.nl/a/former-volksbank-chief-to-run-groningen-ai-factory/

Martijn Gribnau is the new director of the Dutch AI factory in Groningen. He led the Volksbank from 2020 to 2024. The AI factory's supercomputer is due to be running in early 2028.

Lukas Roffel, chair of the supervisory board, said Gribnau "brings wide experience at board level and knows how to put AI technology to work in businesses".

Roffel said the factory needs a director who can build an organisation and link business, science and government.

Roffel said Gribnau can turn the factory's ambitions into an organisation that helps Dutch companies and researchers move forward.

Gribnau said he will focus on businesses and researchers. "We start with what companies and researchers really need, and I am looking in particular at innovative small and medium-sized businesses," he said. "They have the ideas and the ambition to grow, but often not the computing power or the specialist knowledge." He said the aim is to show that companies make better products with AI and that researchers make new discoveries faster.

> Martijn brings broad administrative experience and knows how to bring AI technology into practice at companies. With that he can turn our ambitions into an organisation that really helps Dutch companies and researchers move forward.
> — Lukas Roffel, chair of the supervisory board

## Background

- **Volksbank**: The Volksbank is a Dutch banking group, known in full as de Volksbank N.V., that runs several retail and savings banks under one roof, including ASN Bank, RegioBank and SNS. It is one of the larger banking groups in the Netherlands, serving private customers and some business clients. The name refers to the group as a whole, not to a single bank, so 'former Volksbank chief' means someone who led the entire group and its brands.

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