Artemis Westenberg has over 35 years of experience as an influential lobbyist and advocate among variety of circles, organizations and causes in the Netherlands, Europe and North America. She has been a lobbyist in the space exploration sector since 2000.
She has worked as account manager, project manager and spokesperson for Mutlinationals, Dutch Government, Policy groups putting her degree in General Management from the Dutch Entrepreneurial Society to good use. Over the years, she has developped a wide network of contacts on board level with many companies and organisations.
She has become an expert on many things Mars, e.g. the geology of Mars and NASA’s Curiosity, and Opportunity & Spirit, and ESA’s Mars Express. Westenberg is a well-known Mars and space ambassador, often as a Netherlands spokesperson among the national and international space community.
She served as president of the Mars Society Netherlands and as a Steering Committee member for the Mars Society Inc. Prior to that, she served as Capsule Communicator (CapCom) and crewmember in a number of Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) missions. In 2007, she was logistics manager for the Flashline Arctic Research Station (FMARS) crew. Westenberg took on management of MDRS in 2008 as Mission Director where she turned the project into a completely self-sufficient and financially independent venture. She has coordinated both national and international conferences since 1980, many taking place in the Netherlands and Europe.
Since early in her career, she has been a nationally decorated feminist in her country, which began when she was delegated as a member of the Dutch government to attend the UN conference on the status of women, in Copenhagen 1980. Westenberg gained knowledge in public affairs and business administration as president of the Council of Women for Rotterdam.
Westenberg is multilingual, speaking Dutch, English, French, German regularly, with fluency in six others languages.