Lousewies van der Laan

In 2006, Lousewies van der Laan led the D66 political party in the Dutch parliament (Tweede Kamer). For twenty years she has been working seventy hours a week. So, it is time for a sabbatical year in which Lousewies van der Laan writes weblogs, calls attention to activities of people and organisations she works with and leads conferences and other events as a chair person.

Lousewies van der Laan was born in 1966 in Rotterdam. Her resume is varied and impressive. She studied Law in Leiden and did a postgraduate study in International Relations at the School for Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy. After that she was an intern at Greenpeace and the cabinet of Frans Andriessen, vice-president of the European Commission. From 1991-1994 she contributed to the EC Taces-program.

Before she joined D66 as party chair person in the European Parliament in 1999, she was an environmental expert at the European Bank for Rebuilding and Development, EBRD, in London and a member of the cabinet of the European Commissioner for External Relations, Van den Broek. In 2003, Lousewies van der Laan became vice-chair person of D66 and a Member of Parliament with foreign affiairs, higher education, study financing, justice, police, ITC-policies, technology, Justice and Internal Affairs, European Affairs and homo policy in her portfolio.