Board of Directors

Rukshana Edwards is an experienced digital marketer and marketing leader with a strong focus on strategy, content management, and reporting within diverse channels, concentrating on the healthcare field. She is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam, with a master’s degree in Dutch 16/17th-C art and art history, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon. Rukshana launched her career in Seattle, USA, specialising in the arts and working at two of Seattle’s wonderful artistic institutions: the Seattle Art Museum and the Henry Art Gallery. For these institutions, she provided fundraising support by creating and executing targeted fundraising events.

In Seattle, she was also a key member in a large community-wide art project—Pigs on Parade—that involved the city’s iconic Pike Place Market and its beloved “Rachel the Pig.” One of the most successful fundraisers for the Market, the project and the activities surrounding it were heralded not only as a way to highlight the richness of the arts within the community but also to bring together businesses, artists, and the community as a whole.

Growing up and living in over five countries, Rukshana has a keen interest in the arts, performance, and music, and a curiosity for the language of art and its cultural effects and affects.

Follow her @RukshanaE

Joost Ramaer is a freelance journalist who has been a performing-arts nut since his teens. He turned that passion into work as well, writing reviews and reportages for Theaterkrant in Amsterdam and Culturebot in New York, among other publications. He works as a public-talks moderator for festivals like Noorderzon (Groningen), Welcome To The Village (Leeuwarden) and ITA’s Brandhaarden (Amsterdam).

Joost obtained a Master’s of Law degree at the University of Amsterdam but never practised as a legal professional. Instead, he became a business and economics journalist, first at Quote (1986-1993), the leading Dutch business magazine, then at de Volkskrant (1993-2003), one of Holland’s best national daily newspapers. During his last five years at the paper (2003-2008), he worked as a news reporter for the Arts desk, where he started writing professionally about theatre for the first time in his career.

Joost left the paper to write a book: De Geldpers (The Money Press; pub. Prometheus). Published in 2009 to universal critical, it tells the sad story of how Volkskrant’s publisher, PCM, let itself be plundered by the British private-equity investor Apax.

In early 2019, Joost published two more books: Het geheim van Stroeve (Stroeve’s Secret; pub. Balans), concerning Holland’s last independent private bank dating back to 1818, and Maar hoe dan? (But how then?; pub. Infocaster), about a radical form of employee-management at Infocaster, a website builder in Arnhem.

Winesh Nohar is managing partner of RANU, an Administration and Consultancy office based in Amsterdam. RANU’s core activities are financial administration, the provision of tax advice, and the preparation of tax returns for companies and individuals.

As an experienced legal advisor, Nohar’s knowledge of how the relevant Dutch policy rules work helps companies and private individuals to find their way within the Dutch legal system. The aim, thereby, is to support these companies so that they can grow. Nohar is also a keen ambassador for social justice and has helped many private individuals who are experiencing a difficult time.

Bérénice Boutin is an academic researcher in international law specialised in issues related to new technologies. She notably conducts research on the legal, societal, and policy implications of artificial intelligence. She has led projects on international security, responsibility, and new technologies, and has been awarded research grants from a number of funding institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.

Berenice holds a PhD in law from the University of Amsterdam and Masters from the University Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne. Originally from France, she has been living in the Netherlands for over ten years, and is currently based in The Hague.

Claudio de los Rios is an entrepreneur focused on delivering music and arts performances to global audiences. He brings his background and career focused on finance, risk management and market development together to help scale commercial growth. He has led project and product development in the areas of data analytics and process improvement for several technology companies focused on governance risk and compliance.

Claudio holds a bachelor degree in Zoology with a secondary focus in behavioural psychology from the University of British Columbia as well a Chartered Accountant professional designation from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

He has spent considerable periods of his life living and working in several places in North America before calling Amsterdam home these past nine years.