He was born in 1946 in Hilversum, the Netherlands and received his MSc Rural Sociology and planning at Wageningen Agricultural University in 1976.

He has thirty years of experience in advisory work in sustainable agricultural development planning and implementation in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Initially mainly working in rural areas; Since 1996 also in the urban setting. He has been working many years with the International Agricultural Centre (IAC) in Wageningen the Netherlands and with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Directorate for Development Cooperation (DGIS) and since 1987 in ETC as a senior advisor.
 
Key interests/areas of expertise:

• Organizational and human resource development
• Design and management of pro poor and integrated development programmes
• Multi-stakeholder planning, monitoring and evaluation
• Participatory and gender sensitive approaches to agricultural research, technology development and innovation, training and extension
• Transition to sustainable agriculture
• Network and fund management