Evert Jan Schouwstra

Evert Jan Schouwstra, Managing Director of World Trade Center Leeuwarden (located in the Northern Netherlands), World Trade Center Leeuwarden

After working at the international level (visited and exported to more than 70 countries for several companies and organizations for 20 years), EJ took up a post as Senior Trade Consultant at the Chamber of Commerce in 2005. There he was given the opportunity to share his work experience with the corporate sector in the North of the Netherlands. In addition to giving advice to individual companies and organizing various trade missions, he is on the advisory boards for International Business at the University of Applied Science in Leeuwarden and the IBR of the Rijks University Groningen. Since September 1st 2011, he combined his job at the Chamber of Commerce with being the Director of the WTC Leeuwarden. In 2015 he joined the WTC Leeuwarden.

WTC Leeuwarden is 100% focusing on offering trade services, more specific international business development. They offer B2B partner searches, individual consulting and coaching, trade missions, and more. In the field of knowledge exchange they have a business club and a webinar series called “Promising Cities for International Business” in which they introduce each time another WTC in the world. Another product they developed is their podcast series EXPORTVERHALEN (Export stories).

In 2018 he was host of the 49th WTCA General Assembly and won in 2020 the WTCA Champions award for sustainability and in 2021 the WTCA Champions award for reciprocity. He is Chairman of the WTCA EMEA Trade Service Member Advisory Council and Member of the WTCA European Regional Advisory Council.