Ria Hulsman is agronomist and worked  on sustainable agroforestry in the Bolivian Amazon for 6 years. Later she coordinated the International and the Organic Agriculture Programmes of the Dutch young farmers organisation (NAJK) in the Netherlands. She started working for Hivos in 2002 and 2 years later she moved to La Paz, Bolivia to start up the HIVOS office for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Before joining Wageningen UR she headed the HIVOS office for resource development at global and regional level (RO Africa, Asia and SA) in the Hague.

Ria Hulsman is currently the manager international cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean at Wageningen UR and the person to contact with for all new and interested partners from Latin America.