Serv Wiemers (e-mail) is Open State’s executive director. Serv believes in a strong democracy through open communication and information. Previously he was, among other things, director of The Hague Institute for Global Justice and Transparency International NL. He also worked on strengthening democracy, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe through the OSCE. In the Netherlands, he was active for the Dutch Labour Party. Serv studied international law and international relations in Leiden, Paris and Connecticut.

Sicco van Sas (e-mail, mastodon, github) started as an intern at the Open State Foundation for his master thesis Artificial Intelligence in 2012. Since then he always stayed involved with the foundation. Together with his team he won the Public Broadcasting Hackathon in 2013 and he created the Dutch Budget Visualization in 2014. He works as a developer at Open State since 2015. Sicco loves to open an analyze data and has worked on numerous projects that contribute to this. He spoke on the main stage during May Contain Hackers 2022: Democracy: Eventually Digitally Transparent?

Tim Goedhart-Vos (e-mail) is senior projectmanager, attorney and political scientist. Having worked at ProDemos and its predecessor the IPP, he has a strong background in promoting active citizenship. He supports the proposition that government is there for all of us and that the knowledge that is gained is of importance to everyone. Active citizenship starts with a government that is open by design. Tim likes to focus on strengthening the debate on transparency and open data, and on projects that make government data accessible and reusable.

Jan van der Burgt (e-mail) is project lead at Open State. After founding and building several tech companies, Jan is now at Open State to build a new suite of products for open data. Products that aim to make open data better accessible and searchable. His first project will be OpenOverheidsdata.

Charlotte Kroese (e-mail) joined Open State Foundation as a project officer in October 2023. She obtained her master’s degree in Information Law at the University of Amsterdam in 2022, where she studied privacy and data protection law, algorithmic discrimination, and the right to information and freedom of expression. She has a background in political science as well. At Open State, she currently works on facilitating more meaningful algorithmic transparency in Dutch governmental organisations. As of September 2024, Charlotte combines her work at Open State with an Advanced Masters’ in Technology Governance at the University of Amsterdam.

Marlinde Weener (e-mail) has been working at the Open State Foundation as a project assistant since September 2024, focusing primarily on the Open Lobby and Open Government Partnerschip Action Plan projects. She has studied economics, philosophy, and international development studies. Previously, she worked as a field staff member with the human rights organization Peace Brigades International in Colombia. Now, she aims to shift her focus to the Dutch landscape and be involved in bringing about positive developments in her own country. She views government transparency as a fundamental right and one of the key cornerstones of a healthy democracy. Her mission is to raise awareness of the topic even more, including among the general public.

Isabeau Hoonakker (e-mail) has been working as a project assistant at Open State Foundation since September 2024. In this role, she focuses on various projects, including Bron, Open Spending, and Waar is mijn stemlokaal. Isabeau has a background in International Business and Public Administration and Organizational Sciences, with a specialization in political science and economics. Previously, she worked as a student assistant at the University of Amsterdam. During her studies, she delved into citizen participation and researched how it can contribute to a stronger democratic system. Her research showed a clear connection between well-informed citizens and their trust in democracy. She is eager to apply these insights at Open State Foundation, where she contributes to promoting an open government.

Quinten Coret (e-mail) has been working at Open State as a developer since October 2024. He has a background in econometrics and data science, with a specialization in transparent data usage. Quinten strongly believes in the importance of open data for better understanding society. To this end, he previously created the corona-game ‘Beter dan Hugo’ and the Twitter bot ‘Nieuw in de Kamer’. At Open State, he now applies his technical skills to projects that make government information more accessible and usable for everyone. He combines this with completing his master’s in Climate Econometrics at the Vrije Universiteit.

Rob van Dijk (e-mail) works as a developer at Open State in November 2024. He has a background in science (PhD in Astronomy) and has since worked in IT fulfilling various roles. Looking for a social company to work for, he found Open State where he enjoys contributing to a more transparent democracy. He works on projects that collect public government data from various sources and makes these available via easily accessible formats and websites.