Nathalie Jaarsma is the Dutch Ambassador at-Large for Security Policy and Cyber since September 2020. Prior to this position, she was the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Cyprus (2016-2020) where she took various initiatives for reconciliation and peacebuilding. Ms. Jaarsma headed the Security and Defence Policy Division at the Dutch Ministry of foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016. In this role, she was responsible for the Dutch engagement in NATO, OSCE and on EU security and defence policy. She was a Political Counsellor at the Dutch Embassy in Washington DC (2008-2012), primarily working on non-proliferation and arms control issues. Before working in the security field, Ms. Jaarsma worked on economic, trade and financial affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and at the Dutch Embassy in Canberra. She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001. Prior to this, Ms. Jaarsma had a career in organizational change management in various consulting and commercial roles. In those years, she worked in Thailand and in the Netherlands mainly in IT, telecoms and the (petro) chemical industry. Ms. Jaarsma holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Business University Nijenrode and a Master’s degree in Business with a specialization in innovation and change management from Technical University Twente.
