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Our Team

The Foundation has an active team that manages the day-to-day and long-term activities of the Foundation. This is done in close cooperation with the Board and under the supervision of the Chairman.

Salim Rabbani

Chairman

Salim Rabbani (1962) is Managing Director of RTC Rabbani Trading and Consulting BV based in The Hague, The Netherlands. RTC is an international business development and strategy consulting firm specialized in developing projects, strategies, networks and partnerships for European firms in the Middle East and North Africa and vice versa. Mr. Rabbani is Chairman of the Netherlands – Middle East Business Council, the leading private sector trade and investment promotion organization in The Netherlands. In addition, he is Chairman of the Middle East Work Group, a Public-Private partnership initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs together with the leading Dutch industry associations. Salim Rabbani was born and raised in The Netherlands to Palestinian parents. After finishing his secondary education in The Netherlands he completed his graduate and undergraduate studies in the United States (MBA, University of Southern California; BS in International Business, California State University).

Jan Donner

Former President, Royal Tropical Institute

Dr. Jan Donner (1947) was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and obtained his doctorate in law in 1978 from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He did his Ph.D. on higher education policies and management. He lived and worked in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Throughout his career he has worked in academic and entrepreneurial environments. At the Dutch ministry of Education he was in charge of the programme to replace the University Medical Centers in Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, Maastricht and Groningen before being appointed vice-president of the University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, followed by appointments in senior healthcare management posts until 1991. He was appointed vice-president of the Vrije Universiteit in 1991 and president of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam in 2001. He participated in peer reviews in universities all over the globe, was amongst the initiators of the Arab European Universities Association in 1998 and started many SME’s in developing countries in Africa and Latin America. He retired in 2012 but is active in many national and international roles, chairing several boards of directors. He travels widely and continues to publish on higher education.

Joumana El Zein Khoury

Director Prince Claus Fund

Joumana was born in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon and is currently Director of the Prince Claus Fund for culture and development in Amsterdam. Previously she was Director of the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation, Programme Coordinator for Grants and Collaborations at the Prince Claus Fund and consultant in Development and fundraising for various cultural organisations. Joumana obtained her MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University, New York.

Frank Houben

KLM Director Communications & Corporate Identity

Frank Houben was born in 1971 and is currently Director Communication and Corporate Identity at KLM, where he began his career in 1998. In recent years his success in turning KLM into a prominent social brand has been internationally recognized, with awards for the notable “Tile and Inspire” campaign (Delft Blue aircraft) and other creative brand campaigns such as “Be My Guest” (meet & seat) and “Miffy in China”.

Maya Meijer

Director & Owner of The Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam

Maya Meijer is an art historian with specialized knowledge of architectureboard and the contemporary art scene. She holds many important positions in different organizations – Director/Owner of The Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Chairman of the Gastenverblijven a Foundation that enables family of patients of the VUMC to stay in a hostel close to the Hospital, member of the fundraising committee of the Cancer Center Amsterdam, Board member of the Stichting Vrienden van Perscentrum Nieuwspoort and of MeyerBergman as well as former Director of Stichting Den Haag Sculptuur, former Chairman of Pink Ribbon Breast cancer Awareness Foundation and former owner and Director of Promenade Hotel Holding – to name but a few.

Jan Peters

Professor Emeritus in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen

Dr. Jan Peters was born in 1940 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1961. He studied in Nijmegen, Beirut and Leiden and graduated in philosophy (1964), theology (1970) and Arabic Studies (1972). He was chair of the department of Middle Eastern Studies in the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen from 1976-1987. From 1984 till his retirement in 2005 he was member of the Board of Governors of this university. He was a member of the Research Council for the Humanities in the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and chair of the Council for the Humanities in the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was president of the Federation of Catholic Universities in Europe (FUCE, 1997-2000) and president of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU, 2000-2006).

Yonet Schroder

Manager External Affairs, Rabbani Trading and Consulting

Following her studies in Sociology and Public Administration in Toronto, Ontario, Yonet Schroder (1961) joined the Ontario Psychological Association, a professional organisation that helps to improve psychological well being through advocacy, education and support for the science and practice of psychology. Upon moving to the Netherlands in 1992, Ms. Schroder worked as a Research Consultant with the Butler Cox Foundation, an information technology research and advisory service firm. She has been active as Manager of External Affairs for RTC, Rabbani Trading and Consulting since 1993 and joined the Board of the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation that same year. In this capacity, she brings over twenty years of management experience.

Ehsan Turabaz

Manager International Sales, Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

Drs. Turabaz (1959) has been living in the Netherlands since 1981. He is currently working as the Manager International Sales at Inter IKEA Systems B.V., which is the owner and worldwide franchisor of the IKEA concept. Besides this, Mr. Turabaz occupies the position of honorary consul general of Afghanistan in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Board member of Netherlands–Middle East Business Council at the NCH. Mr. Turabaz studied Law and Political Science and International Relations at the Kabul University, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and Leiden University. Moreover, he established the Netherlands-Afghanistan Business Council, and has been president of this Council since 2006.

Annelot Menken

Team

Annelot Menken holds a Bachelor degree in Commercial Communications with a specialization in International Business Strategies. She grew up near the international city of The Hague and always had an interest in the Middle East. For over a year she worked as an intern at the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation where she organized many big events such as the 2014 Euro-Arab Dialogue Forum in the Peace Palace, the 2015 event ‘Entrepreneurship: A Euro-Arab Solution?’, and other projects which promoted dialogue between Europe and the Arab World. After graduating she joined the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation as a Programme Officer.

Anne Maartje van Pelt

Team

Anne Maartje holds a Bachelor degree in Public Administration and a Master degree in International Studies from Leiden University. She has worked for the Nour project, a national program of AIESEC which focuses on strengthening the relationship between the Arab and the Western world. After organizing multiple events for the Nour project, she set up her own project in Oman. In the first half of 2016 she worked as an intern at the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation. She looks forward to further contributing to the Foundation’s goal of promoting dialogue between the Arab and Western world by working in a professional environment at the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation.