Piet Klijnveld
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Pieter 'Piet' Klijnveld (16 August 1874 – 9 February 1945)[1] was a Dutch accountant who started a practice that after several mergers would grow into the international accounting firm KPMG.
Life and career
Pieter Klijnveld was born on 16 August 1874 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was the son of Pieter Klijnveld Sr. and Maria Christina Klijnveld. He married Cristina Johanna Royaards on 2 August 1906 in Amsterdam.[1]
After working at the Amsterdam office of the Twentsche Bank (a precursor of ABN Amro), he opened a small accountancy practice in 1917 in his home on the Viottastraat. It would take a few years before a second office was in use on the Tesselschadestraat. Amsterdam was a bustling trade and investment hub for European and Asian industrialists. Many foreign enterprises, including royalty, governments, and even the Bank of England, traded extensively in the Netherlands at the time, making it an active market for financiers as well as importers and exporters of virtually everything.
Klijnveld became the chief accountant to many of these emerging businesses. To meet the demands of his growing client roster, he teamed up with a local tax firm called Meijburg & Company. One of these accountants was Jaap Kraayenhof, who joined Klynveld and eventually become senior partner of the Dutch firm "Klijnveld Kraayenhof & Co.", abroad usually written as Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. (KKC).
Klijnveld died just before the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 and his wife died in September 1947. They had an art collection that included amongst others works by Piet Mondriaan.[2]
Legacy
Specializing in banking and exporting, KKC kept its name and independence by serving Dutch clients who were expanding throughout Europe and South America. In 1979, Klynveld Main Goerdeler (KMG) was formed with the merger of Klynveld Kraayenhof & Company, Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (DTG), and McLintock Main Lafrentz to create a strong European-based international firm.
In 1987, KMG and Peat Marwick International (PMI) combined in the first mega-merger of large accounting firms forming KPMG.