Season 3, Episode 6 – Henk Swarttouw

Season 3, Episode 6

Henk’s Journey to Lead the World’s Most Influential Cycling Advocacy Organisation

Henk Swarttouw had a distinguished career as a diplomat in the Dutch foreign service, serving in the US, France and the UK. 

This culminated in becoming Dutch ambassador to Finland and later, to Denmark.

At the end of his term as ambassador to Finland the President of Finland granted Henk with Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland. This is an extremely select honour.

Henk is now an independent advisor on sustainable mobility and international cooperation. 

In 2019, Henk joined the board of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), and became President in 2021, a voluntary role that he still serves in today.

Henk is also a certified EuroVelo long distance cycle tourism route inspector and served on the EuroVelo Council from 2019 to 2025.

He’s married with two grown-up daughters and when not on the road, divides his time between Amsterdam and Helsingborg, in Sweden.

In our conversation Henk talks about his transition from diplomat to cycling advocate, that began while his was still serving the Netherlands as Ambassador to Finland.

He then shares about some of the biggest wins and challenges during his seven years on the board of the ECF, which is one of the world’s largest and most influential cycling advocacy organisations.

Henk also talks about the wonderful annual Velo-city conference that the ECF owns and oversees, first held in 1980 and why they choose to hold it in relatively far-flung locations such as Matsuyama, Japan next year, rather than sticking to central, safer bets such as London, Paris or Berlin.

What’s Up?

We always finish each podcast with “What’s Up?” in which Sara and Phil share what they’ve be doing, about to do, or interesting things they’ve seen.

Sara is in the middle of running three marathons in three months, Gold Coast, Sydney and Berlin and raising funds for Better Streets.  

Phil is not nearly so athletic these days, but about to head for four weeks’ holidays to the UK and Ireland that, all going to plan, will include a in person factory visit and podcast interview with the CEO of one of the UK’s most iconic bicycle brands.

Meanwhile, Phil also spoke about the successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ exchange in New York City of bike and scooter share operator Lime. This IPO valued Lime at over US$1.7 billion and is a financial vote of confidence in the future of bike and scooter share schemes.