Maarten van Rossum

is one of the founders of the De Witt Institute. He was trained in the Harvard Program on Negotiations by professor Robert Bordone. Maarten teaches advanced negotiations and international negotiations at various academies in the Netherlands.

Maarten is the co-author of the book "Toponderhandelaars". The book focuses on the practice behind all the theory of negotiations. For the book, 10 top negotiators were asked to elaborate on their practice, among them the Prime Minister, CEO's, Members of Parliament, Ministers, ambassadors and a UN-general.    

As a diplomat Maarten was stationed in Brussels, Afghanistan and Washington, and senior counsel to the Prime Minister. He is now the Global Director of Public Affairs at the HEINEKEN Company.

Tim Masselink

is co-author of the book “Toponderhandelaars” and founder & managing partner at &FLUENCE

Before setting up &FLUENCE, Tim worked at Berenschot and as a trainer in International Negotation Skills for the Netherlands Institute for International Relations “Clingendael”.

Tim is an organizational psychologist and politicologist by training and has always had an interest in the behavioral and psychological side of negotiations.

Elske Doets

Elske is owner of travel company Doets Reizen, initiator of the socially engaged startup BuddyBold and founder of the Young Lady Business Acadamy. The key message of Elske is that we collectively have to get rid of old thinking patterns and reflexes. 

Everywhere Elske appaers, she creates movement and in a charming and light-footed way she shifts the focus from the disagreement to the structural solution. Her latest book 'Bloom' ('a new scenario for growth') has inspired many people to make turnarounds in their life.

In addition, Her central message is that a happy, clean and succesfull society needs (more) women in key positions. This should not be forced by quota, however, but realised by making it inevitable. Bottum-up initiatives like the Young Lady Business Academy are the base of these developements.

Robert C Bordone

Robert is Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School. He is the Founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Meditation Clinical Program.

Robert's research interests include various aspects of dispute handling systems for organizations, societies and institutions. Robert is the co-author of two books: Designing Systems and Processes for Managing Disputes (Aspen, 2013) and the Handbook of Dispute Resolution (Jossey-Bass, 2005).

As a negotiations and conflict resolution consultant, Robert worked with some of the worlds largest corporations and (non)-governmental organizations. He specializes in assisting individuals and groups seeking tot manage conflict in highly sensitive, emotional or difficult situations.

Juan David Yrausquin 

Juan David is the former Minister of Finance in the Government of Aruba, and served as Minister Plenipotentiary for Aruba in the Hague. 

Juan David negotiated major pension reform with several public sector unions in Aruba which closed the US$1.4 billion pension funds’ underfunded pension liabilities.

He was trained in the Harvard Program on Negotiations by Professor Daniel Shapiro and is an alumni of Columbia University in New York. 

Anne de Graaf 

Anne is a senior manager at the Heineken Company. She used to work for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coordinates the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework of the EU: challenging and long multilateral negotiations. Prior to her current position she was stationed in Malaysia and at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU in Brussels during the Dutch Presidency, where she lead negotiations in the field of the financing of military EU operations and EU external migration policy.  Before joining the Diplomatic Service she also represented the NL in multilateral working groups of European supervisors on capital markets.

For Anne, negotiations are part of everyday life. They involve social skills, analytical skills, leadership as well as cooperation, to name only a few. Her compass is her curiosity and continuous ambition to understand her counterparts.  

Maartje van Bavel

Maartje owns Speech Republic. Speech Republic trains politicians, CEO's, entrepreneurs, scientists and high potentials in the Netherlands and abroad. Maartje helps them to first find their story and then communicate it.

The goal that Maartje is pursuing with Speech Republic is to be the amplifier in the voice of changemakers.

Negotiations are about so much more than numbers and data. Negotiations are also about the story you tell and the connection you manage to build with the other party. 

Bart Wolters 

Bart is an attorney at law and partner at HVG Law in the Netherlands and has more than 20 years experience with national and international corporate transactions.

He specializes in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and contractual partnerships, commercial contracts and finally business process outsourcing transactions. 

Ed Kronenburg
Ed was ambassador in Paris as well as in Beijing. As an experienced diplomat and top civil servant, he also got to know the Brussels arena like no other.

He was posted to the Dutch Permanent Representation to the EU. He then worked for the European Commission in the cabinet of the Dutch European Commission.

He later became Chief of Staff to the Secretary General of NATO and from 2008 to 2012 he was Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Peter van Keulen

Peter is founder of Public Matters, a public affairs agency with offices in The Hague and Brussels. 

Previously, he worked for food-retailer Albert Heijn, and an international communications agency. He started his career working in Dutch parliament. He founded the Dutch association for public affairs professionals, and regularly gives training, publishes and gives interviews about his profession. 

For Peter, negotiations are the key to success for effective influencing. About key arguments, about band-width of what to give & take, and about awarding the interlocutor in a dialogue. Never from a disbalance in power, always by respecting the other.