Leo Klinkers (1943) graduated in 1968 from the Faculty of Law at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. After a few years working in local government, he became responsible for research and education in public administration at the Law Faculty of Utrecht from 1971 until 1983. He wrote his PhD thesis in 1974 on open access to Government documents. Between 1971 and 1983 Klinkers developed a method for interactive result-oriented policies and regulations. This methodology has been published in a number of books and articles. He left the University in 1983 to become an independent consultant in public administration. Since then he has applied his methodology in the administrations of Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Indonesia, Thailand, Aruba and Suriname. For more information relating to background, publications and projects: kppc.nl.
Herbert Tombeur (1949) graduated in 1972 as a master in law at the University of Leuven (KUL, Belgium). In 1998 he became ‘master in European politics, cultures & societies’ at the Brussels University with the thesis ‘Living apart together – the Belgian intergovernmental cooperation in the domains of environment and economy’ (published in: ‘Public Policy and Federalism’, ed. D. Braun, Ashgate, 2000). After working for three years in an insurance company, he was, from 1977 until 1983, an officer in the Belgian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, first in the Direction for Nobility and Heraldry, later in the Legal Service as an adviser in national and international law. In 1983, he left this federal Ministry for the Flemish Authorities. In the Services of the Flemish Government, he worked until 1993 as a legal adviser and counsel in lawsuits, especially in the field of constitutional and administrative law. In 1994, he joins the new Flemish Department of Foreign Affairs, in which he worked until March 2013 as a political and legal adviser and as an intrafederal and international negotiator. As from March 2013 he is working as a consultant in public administration and legal matters. From 1989 on, he publishes abstracts in political and legal journals, recently about federalism, the Belgian federation, Belgian constitutional law, the European Union and foreign policy. Since 1996 he is a lecturer and a monitor of workshops about the same subjects, commissioned by training institutes in Belgium and the Netherlands. See for more information:tombeurcounsel.eu.
