Biography Christophor

Christophor holds a PhD in economics and worked for many years at the University of Groningen and in the banking industry. He was both in a commercial position with a French bank as well as in a supervisory role at the Dutch Central Bank. Currently he is still working for this institution, monitoring the developments in the international Financial Markets. He lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Christophor is his second name, which he prefers above Robert (or Bob), his first name.  He was born in 1957 in Venezuela and lived a considerable part of his childhood in that country and in Iran (his father worked with Shell). When he was eight years, he moved with his parents and brother Michael to the Netherlands. He went to secondary school in Assen. Then followed a study in General Economics at the University of Groningen. He combined an active student life with a paid job as assistant teacher at the Legal Section of the Faculty of Economics.

After his study he experienced the consequences of a high unemployment rate amongst academics, but eventually he found a job with Crédit Lyonnais Bank Nederland. That position brought him via Nijmegen and the head office in Rotterdam back to Groningen, where he decided to pursue an academic career at the University.

As Assistant Professor he visited several international congresses and published articles in a number of Dutch and international scientific journals. In 1997 he received his Ph.D. in Economics. Since his Ph.D. thesis was about solvency requirements for banks, it was a minor step to a job with the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank). There he currently works with the department Financial Markets where he follows the developments in de international financial world. During his career in the financial sector he never lost his human interest. This resulted in writing his first book, which was based on the real story of how friends and family lovingly looked after a terminally ill Aids patient and helped him through the final stages of his life.

In 1995, his disgust over the biggest single massacre in Europe after World War II in Srebrenica, made him write a book about the real experiences of one of the victims, a Muslim girl who became translator for the Dutch U.N. soldiers.

His conviction that Near-Death Experiences are true spiritual experiences dates back to 1979 when he read Raymond Moody’s Life after Life. A few years ago he wrote a book in which he compared the essences of NDEs with those of five world religions. His conclusion is that the true essences of the five religions can be found in NDEs, but that not all the essences of NDEs can be found in each individual religion. In 2008, he became president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) in the Netherlands.

Christophor demonstrates his social engagement through his work as board member of the Society for Worldwide Dentistry. He participated in dental projects for underprivileged school children in Kenya and Cambodia, and is currently preparing a dental project in Nepal.