About us

A community with a passion for water

Wavemakers United is a community of students, young professionals, and athletes with a passion for water. As a youth organization we focus on local challenges while having a global reach. Our aim is to contribute to the UN SDGs and involve as many youngsters as possible. 

A Foundation with a passion for water

Wavemakers United is a non profit organization, better known as a foundation. This means that our organization is not aiming to profit from our activities and everything we do revolves around making impact. In 2023 the foundation has been granted the ANBI status.

The “Wave” consortium is shaped as a youth-led ecosystem that works on internal growth and produces tangible external outcomes.

Wavemakers United started this journey with a vision to address critical issues surrounding water and sustainability through education, awareness, youth involvement, innovation, job access, advocacy, and enhancing local frameworks. The realization that effective action requires local involvement in communities led to the formation of local consortia, named “Waves”, in various countries. Each “Wave”, eg Wave of Indonesia to others around the world, contributes to the global mission.

Meet our Management team

Tilly
Stroo

Founder &
Managing Director

Untitled design (57)

Muhammet
Biljic

Education &
Program Manager

Sytske
van der Laan

Event Manager

Lucienne
Willems

Sport &
relations Manager

Jacolien
Terlouw - Joosse

Management Assistent

Daphne
van der Vaart

Social Media Manager

Lois
Douma

Community Manager

Marcelien
Bos - de Koning

Sports &
relations manager

Max
van Brussel

Researcher

Gijs
van Nes

Youth Network Manager

Meet our advisory board

Dr. Jasmine Jabali

Assistant Professor

Cholpon Aitakhunova

Research Fellow at Collective Leadership Institute

Dr. Isabela Espindola

Senior Officer responsible for the Young Water Professionals (IWA)

Pallas Agterberg

Challenge Officer (Alliander)

Carolina Tornesi MacKinnon

Business analyst (Brown & Caldwell)

Marcel Beukeboom

Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlandsto the FAO

Manuel Jackson

Manager Stellenbosh University

Elysa Vaillancourt

Youth project manager (ISW)

Noémie Plumier

Jurist Water & Sanitation

Diana Virgovicova

Founder of Xatoms

Meet our official supporters

Henk Ovink

Former Dutch Special Envoy for Water

Meike van Ginneken

Dutch Special Envoy for Water