Reinier van Lanschot

Reinier van Lanschot is my name, I am co-president of Volt, the pan-European political movement. I am also one of the founders of the Dutch division of Volt Europe.

31 years ago I was born in France and I grew up in the Haarlem area. After my law studies in Utrecht and Amsterdam, I worked for a start-up that innovates legal services. After that I was employed by Ahold for four years. I managed a supermarket in Lelystad and was responsible for the sale of breakfast products in the commercial department of Albert Heijn.

Volt Nederland was formally founded on June 23, 2018. There I gave a speech in which I emphasized, among other things, that European integration has resulted in countries that joined the European Community and later the European Union, since the Second World War, to make peace and have known safety. I called European cooperation the greatest diplomatic feat ever and indicated that it is high time to deepen our knowledge and tackle climate and migration problems together at a European level.

I was the first chairman of the Volt Nederland association. After that I became the first party leader of Volt Netherlands. Volt Netherlands received 106,000 votes (2%). Not enough for a seat in the European Parliament, but a remarkable achievement for a new party that was completely unknown a few months earlier.

I am the youngest of three brothers, regularly play football with my friends and have a season ticket at Ajax. I like sports, history, reading and playing board games.

In 2015 my book 'Cancer. A Story of Friendship' that I self-published. Within a short time, second and third editions appeared and I raised a large amount of money that I donated to research into cancer in young adults.

On December 19, 2018, together with Laurens Dassen, I was elected 'EuroNederlander of the Year' by the European Movement Netherlands. On January 23, 2019, I became one of the '30 under 30' talents of the weekly magazine Elsevier. And on December 16, 2019, I received the second prize for “Political Representative of the Year” from “the Good Lobby Awards” on behalf of Volt.

Participation on Humanity Rising[edit | edit source]

HR!Day128 Shared Leadership between MEN and WOMEN: the Power of Connection