Lilian Knippenberg has been Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Municipality of The Hague since July 2025, and it is her job to ensure its citizens are kept safe from digital threats. CISO is a role that didn't really exist a decade ago, but as the threat levels increase, it has become a critical part of the City's IT framework.

In this episode, Tom talks to Lilian about the challenges the city faces - and how events like Hack The Hague can help encourage young people to get involved in ethical hacking.

Stories of Purpose is produced by The City of the Hague, and the Hague and Partners. Visit the website at www.storiesofpurpose.thehague.com for more news about some of the amazing organizations working in the international city of Peace and Justice.

Theme music: Dreams by the Sea by Black Rhomb.

On Stories of Purpose, we share the latest news from the international City of Peace and Justice.

In this episode, Tom is joined by Maarten Roelfs, a Dutch tech entrepreneur who is co-Founder of Office EU.

Many European organizations are currently over-reliant on workspaces and software office suites provided by massive US firms like Microsoft and Google. This means they cannot protect their data sovereignity from tough US legislation such as the CLOUD Act - which compels tech companies to share data from overseas companies in criminal investigations.

Maarten and his colleagues developed Office EU to be an alternative productivity platform that is 100% European owned and runs entirely on European infrastructure. It provides all the same tools such as documents, spreadsheets, and presentations - but uses open source technology to ensure complete transparency for users.

Visit for Office EU for more information

Stories of Purpose is produced by The City of the Hague, and the Hague and Partners. Visit the website at www.storiesofpurpose.thehague.com for more news about some of the amazing organizations working in the international city of Peace and Justice.

Theme music: Dreams by the Sea by Black Rhomb.

On Stories of Purpose, we share the latest news from the international City of Peace and Justice.

In this episode, Tom chats to Jonas Brøg - co-Founder of Firestarters Foundation, a new programme to support disadvantaged young people in The Hague.

There are currently more than 14,000 kids in city who don't regularly attend school, and Jonas and his team run sessions at Hart Beach in Scheveningen to try and help some of them to 'find their fire'.

Jonas is a former session musician who has toured with some of the biggest bands on the planet, but if it wasn't for his own 'firestarter' moment when he was a teenager - it might have all been so different…

Find out about Firestarters at https://firestarters-schev.nl/

Stories of Purpose is produced by The City of the Hague, and the Hague and Partners. Visit the website at www.storiesofpurpose.thehague.com for more news about some of the amazing organizations working in the international city of Peace and Justice.

Theme music: Dreams by the Sea by Black Rhomb.