A brief introduction is in order.
I am an Associate Professor, who specialises in European and Dutch public procurement law, and will continue to do so through my research, teaching and other activities.

Research!
My research focus is on sustainable insourcing and outsourcing in the public procurement (law) context.

My (so far, fingers crossed, well-received) book ‘EU Public Procurement Law & Self-organisation’ deals with the influence of EU public procurement law on self-organisation by public authorities (first reviews after publication in Dutch & English). For my other publication, see the other page. I am currently investigating mandatory sustainability and social requirements in EU public procurement law in a variety of ways.

I was fortunate enough to be a Visiting Scholar at The George Washington University’s Government Procurement Program in Washington D.C (2014) and at Copenhagen University (2020-2022). On this subject, I regularly publish in international and national journals to advance it further, and am a co-author of the Dutch legal commentary “Tekst & Commentaar Aanbestedingsrecht”. Sustainable and responsible insourcing and oursourcing is key in all of this!

I am a board member (academic secretary) of the interdisciplinary Utrecht University Centre for Public Procurement (UUCePP) en co-initiator of the university-wide Platform ‘The Transactional State’ within the research theme Institutions for Open Societies (IoS). I am co-initiator of the research project ‘Public Interest Ecosystems’ within RENFORCE. I am also a member of the EU-wide researchnetwork ‘European Procurement Law Group‘.

I love lecturing.
At Utrecht University, I lecture EU and Dutch public procurement law, competition law and state aid law. In 2018, I was short-listed for Best Lecturer of the Year (next time, gadget). I also coordinate the executive course for professionals called ‘Samenwerking tussen lokale en regionale overheden’. In 2020, I co-founded the Utrecht Law Clinic and am very happy to coordinate the Law and Sustainability in Europe Master programma. It’s really the programma I wished existed when I was studying at law school.

Impact is important (and fun!).
Since 1 September 2022, I am appointed by the Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate as the chair of the Advisory Committee Proportionality Guide. In 2018, the Dutch State Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs followed all of the recommendations in the advice on clustering of contracts, written by a working group that I was allowed to chair. In the same year, the District Court of The Hague adopted the terminology detailed in my publication on the dividability of the State under EU law (JAAN 2018). In 2015, my joint research with prof. E.R. Manunza led to questions in the Dutch Parliament.

The world is (luckily) bigger than academia.
Listen to our podcast on public procurement law (and take your first steps in Dutch or English?). New episodes come out every month since January 2019. I wrote a column at Gemeente.nu on procurement, government and market, and competition (2018-2020). I am currently a board member of the Dutch Association for Public Procurement law (NVvA) and an editor of Tijdschrift Aanbestedingsrecht en Staatssteunrecht (Dutch journal for public procurement and state aid law). Previously, I was part of the national committee on ‘Beter Aanbesteden’ (Better Procurement), which was initiated by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. Also, I was an invited member of the NEVI and NVvA committees that were in charge of preparing for the new EU public procurement Directives.

Life before all of this was (also!) quite good.
I worked as an assistant professor (2018-2021) and a phd candidate (2012-2018) at Utrecht University. I also read law at Utrecht University and Copenhagen University and graduated with honours. Subsequently, I briefly worked at Boekel de Nerée, a lawfirm in The Netherlands, and at Lander & Rogers, a lawfirm in Australia, and but returned to the Netherlands to pursue my PhD.

Still interested in some of my publications?