Born on 22 April 1965 in Weesp (Netherlands). President of the Foreign Press Association in Italy from 2009 to 2011 and since March 2013. I graduated in philosophy from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and have a PhD in philosophy from the University of Florence on the concept of religion in Giovanni Gentile. I have been working for eighteen years as a correspondent for the major Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf (circulation approx. 500,000 copies per day) for Italy and Turkey. In 2005, I published the book Johannes Paulus II. Een revolutionair conservatief (John Paul II: A Revolutionary Conservative). I am co-director of the Global Journalism course at the Telematic University UniNettuno. I won the Sicilia Madre Mediterranea 2008 journalism award and the Santa Margherita Ligure 2009 international culture award.