I studied Archaeology of the Roman and medieval times in Amsterdam (UvA) and Art History in Utrecht (RUU). After graduating in both studies, I worked as an archaeologist on a large excavation in Meerbusch-Strümp (NRW, Germany) in 1991/1992. After that, I was one of the archaeologists/project leaders in the German excavation firm LAND GmbH (1992/1999). I had several excavations in North Rhine Westphalia and in Brandenburg, covering almost every archaeological period. Then I returned to my homeland The Netherlands and became one of the archaeologists in a large infrastructural project called RWS De Maaswerken (1999/2004). The last 2 years I was Head of the archaeological team.

Finally, I found my dream job becoming the municipal archeologists of my hometown Maastricht in 2005.

At first, my main task was that of an archaeological policy adviser. In 2007, we became the competent authority for archaeology in our municipality, taking care of our archaeological heritage in municipal planning developments. Since 2 years, I have become Head of our small Cultural Heritage cluster. My main task is managing all aspects of archaeology in Maastricht: being competent authority and therefor keeping contacts with developers, public administrations, stakeholders and archaeological firms, but also presenting the results of our research.

It is this last part that makes CHNT for me the place to be once a year: hearing about new inspiring developments in presenting our results in heritage research to the public.