Pieter de Baan, Regional Director
 Pieter joined SNV in 2003 as country director for Cameroon, in West & Central Africa. This became the launching pad for activities throughout the Congo Basin, eventually leading to the establishment of a fully-fledged SNV programme in DR Congo. From 2006-2008, Pieter was country director in Vietnam. Until the end of 2009, he was based in The Hague as a senior adviser to the Board on strategy and policy and in January 2010 moved to Tirana to lead SNV Balkans as Regional Director.

Pieter’s background is in modern history and international law. He has worked as a researcher in both areas until joining the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), in Amsterdam, where I contributed to the development of a business development unit. In 1998, he joined ARCADIS Euroconsult / BMB management consultants, a Dutch consultancy now part of the MottMacdonald group, as a manager and consultant with postings in Jakarta and Cairo.

Jack Cortenraad, Country Representative, Albania

A results-oriented leader with wide-ranging director-level experience and a proven track-record in delivering strategic planning, management and leadership, Jack came at the position of the Director of SNV Albania and Macedonia in January 2008. Jack joined Balkans team in October 2006 as a senior officer on partnerships. Prior to that, Jack has been Country Director for SNV Laos and Cambodia and has a long background in civil service, SNV and international development (UNDP).  Recently, the government of Laos rewarded Jack with the Friendship Cross for his contribution to the realization of the national socio-economic plan.

 Han van de Meerendonk, Country Representative, Macedonia 

Han has expertise in agribusiness development and worked in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central and South Asia prior to join SNV in Stip, Macedonia in March 2009. He was mainly involved in horticultural and dairy development projects, conducting project design, project implementation, training, research and monitoring and evaluation. Han was the adviser of many farmer smallholder programs co-operating with private investor and assisted small farmers to develop their marketing capabilities and their organizational structures and business planning, introducing issues such as contract growing and contract based financing, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Good Farming Practices with proper farm budgeting.

Semsa Alic, Country Representative, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Šemsa has joined SNV after 11 years of working with primarily UN organizations on various and evolving development issues in BiH. She can tell you a lot about development issues at local level, and how to make a plan to deal with them and turn them into development opportunities.

Regional Office Team

Bert Van Nieuwenhuizen, Regional Controller
Bert spent 17 years in Africa (Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Botswana) with SNV combining his advisory skills with professional expertise before coming to the Balkans in 2005. Apart from being a financial controller, Bert is very dedicated to SNV’s mission, being part of many task forces aiming at organizational strengthening of SNV. Bert holds an MBA on Corporate Strategies and Industrial Policies from the  Maastricht School of Management.  

Cobie Dikken, Regional Human Resources Manager
With her positive energy and professional attitude, Cobie managed to bring to SNV Balkans the best candidates applying for management or advisory positions. She put all her 30 year work experience in accountancy, finance, business administration and staff management for state (State Police Friesland ) and private agencies at the disposal of the SNV Balkans team building when she first arrived in the region in 2005. For 8 years (1997-2005) Cobie has been member of the board of directors (treasurer) of “ Equa””, a big social organisation in the field of gender issues in the Netherlands.

 

Valbona Sulçe, Regional PR and Knowledge Management Officer
Valbona “jumped” into the public relations world in 2001 after 5 intensive years as one of the best known TV journalists in Albania. At Soros Foundation she discovered and mastered this new profession during 5 years. She successfully converted her communication skills into a strategy for a strong organization image and achieved distinct results, among which the award for the best webpage for NGO sector in 2005. Enthusiastic about this new profession and eager to contribute more to the development of her region, Valbona was looking for new challenges when in 2006 she approached SNV, at the time just expanded as a regional organization.  Valbona studied Language and Literature at the University of Tirana and holds a Master degree on European Studies from the same University.

Genta Sinani, Regional Human Resources Officer
A very dedicated and hard-working lady, Genta played an important role in SNV Balkans team building. With her academic background in economics further completed with an MBA degree,  and work experience in administrative and financial positions for international organizations (USAID, private companies), Genta proved to be a strong point in managing human resources for SNV Balkans when she arrived  in 2006. 

 Eduard Pashko, Regional logistic officer
Edi was the first to “open SNV’s door” when we first arrived in the Balkans with the Albanian programme in 1993. Since then, Edi has brought the logo of SNV to every corner of Albania and now to the main cities of the Balkans. He is managing all  logistic support for our regional meetings and travels so that advisors stay concentrated on their advisory work and senior managers on the fulfilment of their objectives.