Hans is the founder and Managing Partner of Vriens & Partners, the leading government affairs, public policy and political risk firm in Southeast Asia. It is headquartered in Singapore and has more than 110 full-time staff and 40 senior counselors around the region.The firm has fully-staffed offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines, Cambodia and in Washington, DC. Hans is also on the Board of Directors of Mandai Nature and Chairman of the Southeast Asia Public Policy Institute. He has lived and worked in Asia since 1990. He is a regular commentator on regional issues. Prior to establishing V&P, Hans was Vice Chairman, Asia at APCO Worldwide. He established and served as Managing Director of the Indonesia practice for six years. Prior to this he worked as a political economist in Hong Kong. Earlier he practiced law in the M&A practice at Clifford Chance and was the Asia correspondent for a leading Dutch financial and economic daily. In 1995, he was elected president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club Hong Kong, then the largest in the world.Hans served on the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of UWCSEA. He was a founding member of the Europe ASEAN Business Alliance, Chairman of the Foundation Dutch Education at UWCSEA, board member of Eurocham, and founding chairman of DutchCham in SG. Hans graduated in civil and public law at Groningen University in the Netherlands. During his studies, he was a research assistant in European parliamentary history and public law. In 1982 he took a year off from his studies when he was elected Senatus Rector of the Student Union (VAP). Hans studied at the Bologna Center of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University. He also did stints at the Universities of Grenoble in France, and Krakow in Poland. His family lived in Batavia, Semarang and on the island of Biak (off Papua) in the Dutch East Indies for several generations until the handover of Papua in 1962. He is married to the painter Katy le Blanc. They have two sons.