The EFL Staff:
The EFL Staff Team and Board
Members: public and private housing providers.
Private and Public Sector Associates: commercial companies and public sector organisations and institutes working in real-estate and housing.
Scientific Associates: academic experts in housing and urbanism.
Informal Partners: think tanks, lobbying organisations, NGO’s and other federations working in housing, engineering, construction, real-estate, architecture and (sustainable) urban development at the EU and sometimes international level.
We also regularly collaborate with other housing field actors working in housing and urbanism in general, like practitioners, students and policymakers at all levels (local, regional, national, EU, UN).
Internal Staff Team
Joost Nieuwenhuijzen
Managing Director
Anita Blessing
Senior Academic and Network Coordinator
Lily Maxwell
Network and Communications Officer
Peter Hoogeweg
Network and Communications Officer
Joost Nieuwenhuijzen
After his master’s in Town Planning and Real Estate from the University of Amsterdam, Joost developed a professional career in the social housing industry. In the nineties he was appointed as Regional Director of the Amsterdam based housing association “Rochdale”. There he was in charge of redevelopment of a residential property portfolio of about 11,000 homes in the western part of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, he developed a keen interest in improving the social housing sector via international exchange. Together with the Dutch contractor Rob van der Leij, Joost started the development of an international housing network of practitioners and academics, whose core aims were to facilitate mutual learning by sharing knowledge and experiences and stimulate innovation. This was how the European Federation was born. EFL was then extended to an organisation with over 70 members from 14 countries, composed by (affordable) housing providers, universities and commercial companies in the value chain of housing. It’s unique in its composition and is still growing.
Anita Blessing
Anita Blessing is a researcher and consultant who specialises in international comparative research on the governance and strategic development of social and affordable housing organisations. She trained as an urban planner and has worked in public housing redevelopment, neighbourhood renewal and social housing policy reform. Since 2012, she has been a joint coordinator of the European Network for Housing Research working group ‘Social Housing: Institutions, Organisations and Governance’.
Lily Maxwell
Lily holds a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) from the University of Cambridge and an MSc (cum laude) in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Amsterdam. With her interdisciplinary background, Lily has spent the last five years studying and working in policymaking, research, and marketing/communications for a range of commercial and public organisations in the fields of urbanism, culture and the arts, EU/local governance and digital technologies. Her research interests are broad, with a particular focus on: housing, (digital) civic engagement and co-creation in urban planning, eco-feminism, and the urban commons. Over the last 5 years, Lily has lived in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands; she speaks English (Native), French (fluent), Spanish (advanced) and is learning Dutch and Portuguese. Lily joined EFL as Network and Communications Officer in March 2020.
Peter Hoogeweg
Peter Hoogeweg studied Business Administration in the Netherlands. After he finished his studies in 2001, he worked in Amsterdam for more than six years for the social housing organization Eigen Haard in its Strategy department. During these years at Eigen Haard, he also supported EFL managing director Joost Nieuwenhuijzen for more than a year. In 2012, Peter moved to Portugal and started his own business. Since the beginning of 2017, Peter has been working with EFL again as a freelancer, heading up the Interreg NWE project CHARM and taking care of the monthly EFL Newsflash. Peter now lives in the Netherlands.
Working for EFL
EFL is always interested to hear from talented students. We can offer interesting internships or sometimes part time work. Upgrade your CV with international experiences!
Requirements:
- Good language skills (English, German, French)
- Undergraduate or graduate qualifications.
- Relevant studies: economics, urban planning, architecture, real estate management, geography, European law, international business etc
- Highly interested in the housing industry
- Independent and proactive
- Preference for living and working in Amsterdam.
Interested? Email us at info@ef-l.eu with the subject heading “internship”.
