René Lenssen(1661) is a senior expert in international education and development.

He has a long-standing career and an excellent track record education management, business development and (international) marketing of tertiary education and project development and management of large scale (private and donor funded) education projects in emerging and developing countries.

René is one of the founders and a senior partner of iE&D Solutions BV (ww.ied-solutions.com), a specialized education consultancy firm in the area of international education and development, with clients from across the globe, who have a special interest in capacity development in the education and training sector in sub-Sahara Africa. He has first-hand experience with projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda and Burundi.

René holds an MA in Policy and Organisation studies (Tilburg University, the Netherlands) and a MBA form Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK) and is working on his Doctorate research at ISM International School of Management (Paris/Ne York), focusing on the globall private education sector.

René has been living in Lusaka, Zambia since 2009.

Jaap  Wientjes is owner of Finance for Projects Company(F4P) and senior expert in finances, subsidies and payments securities.

He is member of the city council of the municipality of Gorinchem. From 2001 - 2005, he was director of the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), a bilateral private-sector development bank.

Jaap was vice president head of International Export Finance Network of ING Bank from 1994 - 2001.

Ans Voordouw has 25 years experience in international projects in TVET and Higher Education in Africa (South-Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Ghana), Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, Bhutan), Latin America (Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala), Russia and the Palestine Territories.

In these projects her focus – as project manager, principal consultant and/or trainer/consultant - is on quality improvement of vocational and professional education: development and implementation of quality systems, entrepreneurship training, linking education to the labour market/ SME’s and curriculum development, competency based education organization. Her key qualifications are:

• Quality Assurance and Accreditation frameworks at institutional and government level;
• Connecting TVET with the labour market, developing and executing labour market studies, tracer studies, graduate and employer satisfaction studies;
• Curriculum development/ review, implementation competency based education, e-learning solutions;
• Gender mainstreaming in TVET and Higher Education;
• Developing and implementing Applied Research;
• Capacity building of lecturing and administrative staff of TVET and HE institutions in the above areas;
• Development of E-learning and blendend learning curricula and teaching materials in Moodle platforms;
• Project management, evaluation, proposal writing.

Ans  holds a Master degree in Human Nutrition from Wageningen University and has over 30 years of experience.  She has been chairperson of NEDWORC (Dutch Association of international consultants), board member of VSO Netherlands and is currently member of the Advisory Board of MDF Training&Consultancy.

Anna Pehar is owner of Calix Company and an independent and experienced international management consultant and (project) manager in professional services and higher education with focus on: management development and executive education, business development and general management.
She is  an ‘European’ with global outreach; lived and worked in different countries and in multi-cultural teams, fluent in 5 languages (English, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish and Croatian). Perseverant and diligent, empathic,‘people-motivator’ and 'connector', focused on results; whether commercial, organizational or personal.
Experienced manager, both on team and organizational level. Enjoys working in an international and commercial environments but is also committed to several not-for-profit organisations with CSR objectives, a.o. in Africa.

Specialties: higher education; executive and postgraduate education; management development; general management; business development; consultative selling; negotiation; sales and account management; intercultural communication; facilitation; executive coaching. 

Dimitri Bhugwandass is owner of Career Movers Company, a recruitment agency specialised in finding multilingual, internationally oriented professionals for job opportunities in the Netherlands and abroad. His clients, candidates and staff are Dutch or international and all are multicultural, multilingual and share a global orientation.

Jan van der Heijden is owner of Heybos Company, a consultancy organisation  in education and training for the Middle East,  especially on vocational and bachelor programmes in the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia.. Support all kind of companies in Europe by setting up a branch in the Middle-East: Qatar, UAE and the Sultanate of Oman: feasibility study, organising visits to the ME and introducing the management to relevant key persons and sponsors.  Jan's key qualifications are:

• To set up new business, especially institutions for education and training in the Netherlands.
• Interim-management of Colleges for Higher Education, especially in the industrial, hospitality, nautical and business administration area.
• Projectmanagement.
• Consulting in accreditation for Middle and Higher Education institutions.
• Consultant to expats about working and living in Arab / Muslim countries.
• Consulting in examination / member of Examination Board BBA
• Implementation of Coaching systems for  students during their apprenticeship.