User:ManuelaHoepman/sandbox

Sir Robert J. Quarles van Ufford MSc (Amersfoort, 1967) is a Dutch diplomat, director and council member of various international organizations, including Europa Nostra, OWHC, ICOMOS, WMF and UNESCO. In the Netherlands, Quarles van Ufford is chairman of the Nederlandse Kastelenstichting Dutch Castle Foundation, The Backer Foundation and trustee of the Cultural Participation Fund. Quarles van Ufford is currently the coordinator of the Dutch efforts in the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including interdepartmental and EU coordination.

Diplomatic career
Quarles van Ufford studied history, modern Asian politics and languages and cultures of Southeast Asia at the Universities of Leiden, Oxford, SOAS, Bandung and Cornell. After further training at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) and diplomatic training at the Clingendael Institute, he has been working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague since 1993. From 1993 Quarles van Ufford worked as a diplomat in Cuba, Haiti, Suriname, Sudan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia. As head of the political department and spokesperson of the Dutch embassy in Paramaribo (1999-2002), he was working in Suriname at the time when the Wijdenbosch government was succeeded by the Venetiaan government and relations between the Netherlands and Suriname intensified. During this period of diplomatic approchement, Quarles van Ufford designed the first policy framework for international cultural relations with priority countries, which was later adopted for the other priority countries in the Netherlands. Afterwards Quarles van Ufford was a member of the Program Council of Dutch Culture in Amsterdam, responsible for selection and support of cultural projects in countries with shared cultural heritage. In Indonesia, in addition to being coordinator for development cooperation and economic affairs at the embassy, he was also Dutch coordinator for recovery and reconstruction after the Tsunami in 2004. Since 2016, as Secetary-General of the Marinus Plantema Foundation, he has been closely involved in promoting education, culture and science in Indonesia. As Coordinator for Ukraine Recovery & Reconstruction, Quarles van Ufford is currently responsible at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for governmental aid efforts for Ukraine and for the interdepartmental and EU wide coordination of the activities of the Netherlands in Ukraine.

Heritage expert and director of (inter)national heritage organizations
Quarles van Ufford has been chairman of the Nederlandse Kastelenstichting (Dutch Castle Foundation, NKS) since 2020. This knowledge-based organization is the national advocate for castles and country estates in the Netherlands. Together with Max count Schimmelpenninck, he founded the Castle Day Foundation in 2021. By founding it, the Stichting Dag van het Kasteel (National Castle Day Foundation), was made an independent organisation, responsible for organizing this annual public event. From 2010 to 2020 Quarles van Ufford was chairman and treasurer of ICOMOS Netherlands. During this period he acted as chairman of the independent international Expert Group on World Heritage. In that role, he advised the minister of Education, Culture and Science on the nomination of new Dutch World Heritage sites, including the New Dutch Water Line, the Van Nelle factory, the Roman Limes, the Colonies of Benevolence and the Planetarium Eise Eisinga. He also chaired the Credentials Committee of ICOMOS International until 2022.

From 2011 to 2015, Quarles van Ufford was Secretary-General of UNESCO Netherlands (UNESCO Nederland). He worked to protect and rescue cultural heritage threatened by war and natural disasters in Iraq, Syria, Haiti and Afghanistan and he initiated the global course on Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict in The Netherlands together with ICCROM and the Smithsonian Institute.

National and international conservation of monuments
From 2015-2019 Quarles van Ufford was the first director of the National Monument Organization (Nationale Monumentenorganisatie), the umbrella organization of Dutch monument management associations and foundations. In the same period, Quarles van Ufford was chairman of the Supervisory Board of Monument Property FoundationStichting Monumentenbezit. In addition to sustainable management and preservation of the monuments, he was committed to making former government monuments accessible to a wide public and for repurposing monuments, a.o. by introducing the Nationaal Momumentenportaal (www.nationaalmonumentenportaal.nl).

From 2017 Quarles van Ufford was regent of the Almshouse Armen de Poth Foundation in his hometown of Amersfoort, which offers housing to senior citizens of Amersfoort with a modest income. In 2019-2020, Quarles van Ufford was Secretary-General of the global organization of World Heritage Cities, the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) in Quebec (Canada). Since 2020, Quarles van Ufford has been a Trustee at the Cultural Participation Fund Fonds voor Cultuur Participatie).

Since 2020, he has been the National Representative of the Netherlands for Europa Nostra, Europe's and he is also a council member of Europa Nostra since 2021. Quarles van Ufford has been active since 2020 as a board member of the Fonds Nederlandse Adel (Dutch Nobility Fund), where he set up the Culture Fund providing project grants to publications and exhibitions on the heritage of Dutch nobility.