Jeff Fountain is a New Zealander holding a Dutch passport since 1985, is currently the director of the Schuman Centre for European Studies (www.schumancentre.eu), and lives with his Dutch wife Romkje in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Jeff graduated with a history degree from the University of Auckland (1972) and worked as a journalist on the New Zealand Herald (1972-3), and as travelling secretary for Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship (TSCF) (1973).
He has lived in the Netherlands since 1975, and has travelled and spoken in almost every European country. For twenty years following the fall of communism, he was the European director for the international and interdenominational mission organisation, Youth With A Mission. He was chairman of the international, trans-denominational movement, Hope for Europe, for which he organised two pan-European congresses in Budapest in 2002 and 2011.
In 2010, he established the Schuman Centre for European Studies (www.schumancentre.eu) to promote biblical perspectives on Europe’s past, present and future, to encourage effective engagement in issues facing Europe today.
He has published several books and numerous articles, both popular and academic, including Living as people of hope (2003) and Deeply Rooted (2010). He has written a weekly blog since 2001, www.weeklyword.eu. Jeff was chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of the Nations (www.uofn.edu), 2002-2008.
Jeff and Romkje have led numerous ‘Heritage Tours’, for young and old, both on mainland Europe and the British Isles since 2005.
