Resume

Hester Somsen was born on March 15, 1972, in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

She studied political science with a focus on international relations at the University of Amsterdam.

In 1997, Hester Somsen joined the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 1997 and 2002, she initially focused on issues related to the former Yugoslavia, followed by a posting as Second Secretary at the Dutch Embassy in Hungary. Upon her return to the Netherlands, she took on duties in the immediate office of the Ministry’s Secretary-General, after which she spent a year working in the Directorate for European Integration.

In 2006, she was transferred to the Dutch Embassy in Tanzania, where she focused on political and cultural affairs.

After returning to the Netherlands in 2009, she initially took on a coordinating role in the Crisis Management and Peacekeeping Operations Section of the Security Policy Directorate, and later became the section head.

In this context, she addressed all aspects of the missions in which the Netherlands was participating at the time, including those in Uruzgan and Kunduz in Afghanistan, Operation Unified Protector, and the anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia.

In 2013, she was appointed ambassador to Lebanon, where she served until November 2016. Those years were marked by the refugee crisis and the instability in the country stemming from the Syrian crisis. Her work as ambassador focused on humanitarian aid and stabilization, improving economic opportunities, and addressing the political deadlock in the country.

In September 2016, she was appointed head of the Security Policy Directorate at the headquarters in The Hague. In this role, she was responsible for formulating and implementing Dutch policy in the areas of counterterrorism, cybersecurity, hybrid threats, NATO, the EU, the OSCE, peacekeeping, nonproliferation, and arms control.

In October 2020, she joined the Ministry of Justice as Deputy National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) and Head of the Directorate for Cybersecurity and Threats from Foreign States. The NCTV is responsible for strategically coordinating all relevant security actors, mitigating national security risks, and managing national crises.

In this role, Somsen oversaw, among other things, the publication of the Dutch cybersecurity strategy and the security strategy for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. She was responsible for drafting and implementing rules and regulations, providing support related to cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, and developing general guidelines for the National Cybersecurity Center.

Working closely with other ministries and stakeholders, she developed measures to counter foreign influence, including raising awareness, drafting guidelines, supporting stakeholders, and cooperating with international partners.

She has been accredited as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Germany since October 2024.

Hester Somsen lives with her husband, dentist Bard van Cruijsen.