Louse Wies Sija Anne Lilly Berthe "Lousewies" van der Laan (born 18 February 1966) is a retired Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party and jurist.

Life before politics

In her youth, Van der Laan lived in Belgium, Germany, and the United States.

She finished high school at the German School in Washington, DC. She obtained the International Baccalaureate at Armand Hammer United World College of the American West (In Montezuma, New Mexico). After graduating in 1984, Van der Laan moved to the Netherlands to study law at the University of Leiden. She specialized in International and European Law and graduated in 1990. Between 1990 and 1991 she studied international relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University at Bologna. After an internship at Greenpeace in Brussels, she became an intern at the cabinet of Dutch European Commissioner Frans Andriessen.

Between 1991 and 1994 she worked for TACIS of the European Commission, where she was responsible for environmental projects. In 1995 she worked as an environmental specialist for the EBRD in London. Between 1995 and 1997 she worked for the Cabinet of Dutch European Commissioner for External Relations, Hans van den Broek. In 1997 she became his spokesperson. a mathematician, had a son that they named "Helix". Van der Laan, who speaks English and Dutch fluently, is raising her son bilingually.

She assumed the parliamentary leadership of D66 in the House of Representatives on 3 February 2006, succeeding Boris Dittrich. Dittrich stepped down after the debate on sending Dutch troops to the Afghan province of Uruzgan.

Life after politics

After leaving elected office, Lousewies van der Laan ran an international consultancy business, LW International, which included clients like the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster reduction. From January 2009 until 2015 she was employed as the Chef de Cabinet working for the Presidency of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Lousewies van der Laan remains active in promoting democracy, inter alia, by working with the National Democratic Institute, including as election observer at the 2007 elections in Morocco and 2009 elections in Lebanon. Since 2008 she has chaired the Dutch National Committee of United World Colleges, which selects students to attend one of the 12 United World Colleges around the world. She is a member of Women on Top, which advocates for more women in high level positions and works against the feminisation of poverty. She sits on various Advisory boards, including the Getu Foundation, the Rainbow Tree Foundation (Stichting De Regenboogboom) and the International Democratic Initiative. She has been a member of the Steering Board of the "Apeldoorn Conference", the bilateral conference between the UK and The Netherlands since 2004. She is a guest lecturer at the University of Maastricht, the Clingendael Institute for International Relations and the Nyenrode Business University.

In 2015 she was appointed to the Board of Directors of ICANN, for a three-year term starting in October 2015. She later served as director of the Dutch branch of Transparency International.

References

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  • Mr. L.W.S.A.L.B. (Lousewies) van der Laan Parlement & Politiek