Daan Vreeburg

Daan Vreeburg is 30 years old and grew up in The Netherlands in a village near Maastricht and studied International and Corporate Law at the ‘Vrije Universiteit’ (VU) in Amsterdam. While studying he chaired the board of a student-led non-profit that built a Technical School and an Agricultural Knowledge Centre in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. He wrote his thesis on “Public-Private Dialogue in the East-African Community” while working at the Embassy in Kenya.

 

While working and living in Kenya he saw the potential of business-led development strategies for the agricultural sector in Africa.

Daan started working at the Netherlands-African Business Council (NABC) in 2015. NABC is at the forefront of private sector development and increasing trade and investment between the Netherlands and Africa’s emerging markets. Daan managed and supported a community of over 400 Dutch companies that were actively doing business in Africa. He expanded NABC’s business advisory services by setting up the Africa Insights Desk, an expert pool for SME’s and the Africa Academy, a business curriculum specifically focused on Africa’s emerging markets.

 

On the first of March 2019 Daan started as business advisor in Kenya. Daan hopes to utilise his experience of doing business in Africa, his network of Dutch agricultural SME’s and knowledge of finance trajectories to assist the Kenya team to achieve its goals.

 

Daan: "I’m excited to work at Agriterra in Kenya because agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy and will be the main driver for sustainable development. I believe that Kenya, and other African nations, can become net-exporters of agricultural products in the next 25 years through, amongst others, strong cooperatives and exciting innovations. Cooperatives have an important role to play, supporting farmers to reach their full agricultural potential. It is exciting and an honour to be a part of this process."