Committees

Chair of the survey committee

Monique lived in Greece from 1991 to 2014, where she advocated for a safe school environment for children aged 6 to 17 and was active in the Dutch association. She was also a candidate for the European Parliament twice there for the Green Party. Since her repatriation to the Netherlands in 2015, she has combined her work with volunteer activities, including serving on the board of the Foundation for Kids . With her international background, Monique understands the importance of Dutch people abroad feeling heard and connected. As chair of the survey committee, she is happy to contribute to this.

Vice-Chair of the survey committee

Robert is married to a Brazilian woman and has been active as an entrepreneur in Brazil since 2007. He has served as chair of the Dutch Association in São Paulo, among other things. In recent years, he has personally and through the experiences of other Dutch people, witnessed the challenges of living abroad. In 2022, he became an active member of the SNBN survey committee. During various investigations, it emerged that many issues are made (unnecessarily) difficult by typically Dutch "rules" and the reluctance of many Dutch institutions. Robert is committed to addressing these issues on behalf of the foundation, raising awareness and exerting (political) influence for improvement.

Secretary of the survey committee

Jesse is a research scientist and has lived in Belgium since 2015. After studying social geography at the University of Amsterdam and European Studies at Maastricht University, he moved to Brussels to become familiar with the European institutions. A few years later, he began a PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) on urban mobility, which he completed in 2023. Since then, he has been affiliated with KU Leuven. Jesse feels a strong connection to Belgium and hopes to one day obtain Belgian citizenship without having to relinquish his Dutch nationality.

Analyst of the survey committee

Hester has lived abroad since 2012 and has experience with many types of migration. She was a student migrant (United Kingdom, Peru), a family migrant (Chile), an expat (Mexico), and a returning migrant (Netherlands). She is married to a Chilean and has two children. Through the SNBN (Netherlands Society for the Protection of Children), she aims to contribute to raising awareness of the problems Dutch people face abroad.

ICT survey committee

Dirk has lived in the United States since 1994 and currently works for Amazon Web Services, where he drives business innovation using cloud technology. He joined SNBN with the goal of supporting Dutch people living abroad and ensuring they remain closely connected to Dutch culture and community.