Kees de Ruiter

Background

About Kees de Ruiter

Since January 2024, Kees de Ruiter has been a member of the Board of Directors at Cordaid. From 2023, het is the manager of Cordaid's Program unit and since 2022, Kees has also acted as the manager of Cordaid's Humanitarian Section, ensuring timely and effective responses to acute crises and disasters. Additionally, he has been the Acting Country Director for Yemen, Iraq, Myanmar, and Cambodia, overseeing operations and strategy in these complex environments. From 2021 till 2023, he had served as Director Programs, leading the Program Unit. This unit drives mandates such as Thematic Business Development, Technical Assistance, Acute & Humanitarian Response and Program Management. The unit focuses on areas such as : Health, Education, Food and Nutrition Security, Employment & Entrepreneurship, Security & Justice, and Humanitarian Aid. Before joining Cordaid, Kees was the Director of Strategy and Program Support (SPS) at ICCO, where he held overarching responsibility for five units: Business Development, PMEL, Corporate Communication, Strategy & Policy Development, and Disaster Management. From 2010 to 2018, Kees served as Managing Director of ICCO's Regional Office in Southeast Asia, based in Indonesia. He managed programs across Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea, with a focus on regional impact and innovation. Earlier in his career, Kees spent four years based in Vietnam, deepening his expertise in the region. Kees is an Agricultural Engineer with over 30 years of international experience spanning Asia and Africa. He specializes in social and economic aspects of development, geodata applications, value chain development and M4P (Making Markets Work for the Poor), natural resource management, learning organization principles, and organizational and institutional development.