Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau

Today marks the 6th Anniversary of the Death of Prince Friso of Orange-Nassau, who passed away on this day in 2013. The second son of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus of The Netherlands, he was the brother of King Willem-Alexander and Prince Constantjin. Educated at the Eerste Vrijzinnig Christelijk Lyceum in The Hague, he studied mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, before studying at the Delft University of Technology, where he received an engineer’s degree in aeronautical engineering. Prince Johan-Friso also got a MSc degree in economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and an MBA from INSEAD in 1997. In 2004, he married Mabel Wisse Smit, giving up his place in the line of succession and membership of the Dutch Royal House due to incomplete statements about her past, losing the title ‘Prince of the Netherlands’ by entering into a marriage without an Act of Consent, and retained his title ‘Prince of Orange-Nassau’ as a personal and non-hereditary title. The couple had two daughters, Countess Luana and Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau. Prince Friso worked at the Amsterdam branch of the international management consultancy McKinsey, before working as a vice president at Goldman Sachs International in London, following which he became part-time co-president of TNO Space in Delft, and then became the Managing Director in the London office of a private investment and advisory firm, Wolfensohn & Company, before working as a chief financial officer for URENCO, a uranium enrichment company. Prince Friso was a co-founder of the MRI Centre in Amsterdam and was also a founding shareholder of Wizzair, as well as being the honorary chairman of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. In February 2012, Prince Friso was buried under an avalanche during the Royal Family’s annual holiday in Lech, with his initial coma later progressing into to a minimally conscious state, being transferred to London before moving to the Huis ten Bosch Palace in July 2013. The following month, a year and a half after the accident, and the day after Princess Mabel’s birthday, Prince Friso died of complications, without having fully regained consciousness.12

 

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