Work and official duties
Besides a number of official duties as a member of the Royal House, Princess Laurentien works as a freelance communications consultant.
Since June 2008, she has been a Fellow of the European Climate Foundation. She is also working on a series of children's books which centre on a character known as Mr Finney and deal with issues such as sustainability and climate change. The first book in the series is published in October 2009. Princess Laurentien also works with the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), in particular with the office in Brussels.
The Princess has been involved in activities to
promote literacy, in particular projects and initiatives combating adult
illiteracy in the Netherlands, since 2001. While living in Brussels before
her marriage, she worked as a volunteer teaching adults to read. She now also
works to promote reading among children and young people. Princess Laurentien
is the chair of Stichting Lezen & Schrijven (the Reading and Writing
Foundation), which was set up on her initiative in 2004. She will become
chair of the High Level Group on Literacy of the European Commission on 1
February 2011.
On 24 March 2009, Princess Laurentien was designated UNESCO Special Envoy on
Literacy for Development. In this capacity, she will act as an advocate
for the cause of literacy all over the world.
She is patron of the Dutch Listening and Braille Library (NLBB) and the Dutch
language society Genootschap Onze Taal and honorary chair of the Association
of Public Libraries. The Princess is Vice-President of Fauna & Flora International. She
is also president of the European Cultural Foundation.
Career
Princess Laurentien started her career as a video journalist for CNN Headline News in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), where she worked from 1991 to 1992. From 1992 to 1995, she was executive director of the Belmont European Policy Centre in Brussels, a think tank on European affairs. From 1995 to 1997 she worked for Philip Morris in Brussels, where she was manager of government relations. In 1997 she was appointed deputy director of Edelman Worldwide, an international public relations agency, and in February 2000 joined the board of directors of the Brussels branch of Adamson BSMG Worldwide, an international consultancy specialising in strategic communications and public affairs. After their marriage in May 2001, Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien went to live in London, where the Princess worked for BSMG Worldwide, the consultancy she had worked for in Brussels. In London, she was head of Corporate Communications Practice, first for the UK, then for the European market. BSMG Worldwide merged with Weber Shandwick in January 2002. Since May 2003, she has been working as a freelance communications consultant.