UCF Ambassadors

As UCF staff we are of course very proud of our Global Responsibility & Leadership programme. However, we don’t stand alone in this! We’ve gathered a number of impressive UCF ambassadors who feel the same way. Get to know them:

Jacques Buith

Jacques Buith, born and raised in Leeuwarden, Fryslan. Jacques is a senior Partner at Deloitte with more then 30 years’ experience in advising Global clients. Currently he serves as the Global Lead Partner for the United Nations and the Managing Partner for Risk Advisory within Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE). He currently serves on the Executive of Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE) and the Executive of Deloitte Global Risk Advisory.

In his global roles, Jacques is a senior advisor on the strategy and execution of transformational client, and priority market plans for Deloitte Risk Advisory. More specifically he is focused on growing the Sustainability practice and serving both UN / international donor organizations and private sector clients on the topics of Purpose, Strategy, Impact Assessment and SDG activation.

With more than 30 years at Deloitte in Risk Management, Governance and Regulatory, he has a wide experience in advisory and assessment roles. During his distinguished career in professional services he advised multinational clients in Financial Services, Technology, Media, Telecom, Industrial Products and Services and Automotive. Next to that he was the Project Advisor to the World Economic Forum on their ‘Risk & Responsibility in a Hyper connected World’ initiative for several years between 2011 and 2015.

Jacques is very interested in supporting UCF students in their journey by bringing the Consultancy and private sector experience into the projects. “I am committed to bring my experience in serving global clients and more specifically ‘the UN world’ into the class room. Embedding the UN SDG’s into the strategy of many organisations both locally, nation wide and globally is my main motivational driver.

Marc Flessa

Born and raised in Germany, Marc Flessa was a member of the first cohort of students in the Global Responsibility and Leadership program at University College Fryslân from 2018 to 2021. For his minor in Global Affairs he went to the University of Leiden in Den Haag. In 2023, he successfully graduated with a Master in International Relations from the Central European University in Vienna. Marc also spent a semester in New York City taking part in the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program, including an internship at the Clara Lionel Foundation.   

Marc is interested in a broad variety of topics, ranging from international affairs, security and diplomacy to economics, philosophy and sustainability. During his time at UCF, Marc has always been an active and engaged member of the UCF community and a proud alumni. He is a passionate proponent of its multidisciplinary, small-scale university college education and believes that it provides young people with an optimal environment to not only acquire knowledge, but to discover various fields, think critically and hence develop not only academically and professionally but most importantly personally.  

Max Eisenbart

Max Eisenbart, born in Germany but raised in different places across the Netherlands, is a Global Responsibility and Leadership Alumni, with a strong commitment towards sustainability education and circular economy. He believes that both education and the role of the region hold a key role in advancing sustainable development and the various societal transitions we are facing. 

After his studies at UCF, he stayed in Friesland to work for SPARK the Movement and the Circular Friesland Association. Next to this he is serving as European Youth Coordinator for the UN RCE-network and he is a companion of the EU Education for Climate Coalition.  

Already during his time at UCF he contributed towards the development of UCF and the campus, by serving in the Faculty Council and as the Student Assessor. Also after graduating he wanted to continue this commitment, as he strongly believes that the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary type of education that UCF offers is both unique in the Netherlands and highly necessary to address the challenges of our time. 

Somaye Dehban

Ms Somaye Dehban is the founder of Your Funding Network and CEO of Lattice Consultancy. She has concentrated her interest on issues related to her core values: equality, inclusion and diversity with a special attention to programs where transparency and sustainability are cross-cutting matters. Ms Dehban’s philosophy and life motto is “Sharing is Power”.

As a University College graduate herself, Ms Dehban was asked as representative from the "professional field" during the accreditation of the GRL programme and shared her views on the opportunities as well as challenges of entering the labour market after completing a University College education. “University College Fryslân has already envisioned various interventions to prepare UCF alumni for life after their bachelor programme. It is an impressive programme to be a part of!”