Jur Schuurman (1956) spent his youth in Buenos Aires (Argentina), studied Human Geography in Groningen and Utrecht and worked afterwards for a short period at the Universidad Nacional in Heredia (Costa Rica). After returning to the Netherlands, in 1991 he joined the predecessor of Agriterra, the Paulo Freire Foundation (PFS). Since then, Jur has been working almost continuously for PFS and – from 1998 onwards – for Agriterra. Until 2004 he was liaison officer and worked with organisations mostly situated in Latin America. From 2004 till 2011 Jur was deputy managing director and head of the monitoring and evaluation department. After that he was senior management advisor until 2015, when he left the organisation.