De Ambassadeur

Biography Laurens Westhoff

Laurens Westhoff was born on April 29, 1959 and studied Economics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He obtained an honours degree in 1986. Upon graduation he joined the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a career diplomat in March 1986.

Laurens Westhoff occupied various positions at the Ministry in The Hague. Between 1986 and 1989 he worked as Policy Officer in the Directorate General for Development Cooperation where he was responsible for the funding of non-governmental projects. From 1992 to 1994 he was Senior Policy Officer in the Directorate General for European Integration where he worked on the EU-membership negotiations with the EFTA-countries and the EU-policy on Central and Eastern Europe. Lastly, from 2005 until 2008 he was Deputy Director for Consular Affairs.

In addition he held several positions at Netherlands’ embassies abroad. From 1990 to 1992 he was Third Secretary at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Manila (Philippines), responsible for politics, culture and economics.  Between 1994 and 1998 he was First Economic Secretary at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC, responsible for economic and EU-affairs. Between 1998 and 2003 he was Counsellor, Deputy Head of Mission in Prague.

From 2003 to 2005 he was posted at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU, where he worked as Head of the Commercial Section and, during the Netherlands EU-Presidency in 2004, as Chairman of the Council Working Group on Transatlantic Relations and as Co-chair of the EU-US Task Force. 

In August 2008 Laurens Westhoff was appointed Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London, (United Kingdom).

In August 2012 he was appointed Ambassador at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He is married to Caroline Havers, artist/painter. They have two daughters, Lotte and Maartje.

To follow Ambassador Laurens Westhoff on Twitter click here.