Joost Oorthuizen is the Executive Director of the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), a multi-government funded organization that works with over 350 companies, local governments and civil society  to mainstream sustainable trade in internationally traded commodities through public private partnerships.

He started his career in Asia in water engineering and lectured on public-private governance at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, the Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Wageningen University. And continued as management consultant in international retail and the infrastructure. He is an expert in public private stakeholder management, holds a Ph.D.  in natural resource management and a post-graduate Master of Change Management degree (MCM).