Tjeerd Graduated in 2013 with a Master's Degree in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam and in 2014 with a Master's Degree in American Studies at the University Utrecht. He did internships at the Netherlands Embassy in Tel Aviv and the European Parliament in Brussels. After that, he started at ICODA European Affairs in Brussels in 2015 before getting hired by Oxford Business Group in 2016. For three and a half years, he advised companies and organisations on investment opportunities and the business climate in the emerging markets of the Middle East and the Asia Pacific. He also organized events with public and private sector leaders. Tjeerd worked and lived in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. When coming back to the Netherlands in 2019, Tjeerd founded his own market research company and did several projects before starting at Clingendael.