I was born and raised in the little village of Vorstenbosch (Noord-Brabant, NL). At the age of 18 I started my studies of Classical Archaeology at the University of Leiden. During my studies I was active in REUVENS, the association of the students of Classical Archaeology in Leiden and in the editorial board of the students magazine Profiel. After 5 years of study I graduated on the paper “Etruscan City Walls – A Comparative Study.”
After my studies I started to work for Mensys, a software reseller specialised in long-tail products and with a special focus on alternative Operating Systems like OS/2, Linux and BeOS. In the seven years I worked for the company I helped develop the OS/2 distribution eComStation and I helped build up European sales for several products, most importantly VMware, for which we were the first international reseller, Win4Lin (nowadays VirtualBridges), Red Hat, CodeWeavers. In 2006 I moved on to my next challenge, and started to work for Netco, an internet security company, where I worked as a UNIX security specialist and software developer. Currently I am working for Stichting NBIC, a foundation that facilitates Bio-informatics for academic research institutes.
In my spare time I have worked as volunteer for different causes: Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the Fietsersbond, and the Archaeological services of the Municipality of Haarlem. I am also a photography enthusiast and I enjoy biking and walking in my surroundings. With the National Park the Kennemerduinen within 5 km from my home I have a wonderful place to go to close by.
Esther, I ‘m most impressed about your curriculum vitae and your website and I ‘m very sorry about the death of your cat Abigail. Do you meanwhile have another cat?