Steven Adolf

He was born in The Hague and in his hometown he finished in 1977 the Dalton High School College. In 1980 he got a bachelor degree in economical science at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. In 1984 he finished a master degree in economical science at the University of Amsterdam with a specialization in industrial economics.

After a year working as an investigator at the faculty of economics of the University of Amsterdam, he joined the Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad as a journalist in 1985. For 6 years he published articles on international economics, tax policy, the stock exchange, and international financial fraud. This period was followed by 2 years as the chief editor of the Amsterdam city desk.

In 1993 he went to Madrid to become the correspondent of NRC Handelsblad for Spain, Portugal and Morocco. From 1995 on he also works as a correspondent for Elsevier, the biggest Dutch weekly. As a radio-journalist he contributed for several national radio stations in the Netherlands and Belgium, like the VPRO, the NOS and the VRT. For the Dutch television he worked also as a correspondent and produced and presented a ten chapter documental series about Spain.

Steven Adolf published several scientifical documents for the faculty of economics of the University of Amsterdam. As an author he published in 2001 the non-fiction bestseller Spanje achter de Schermen (Spain behind the stage, 30.000 copies sold), followed in 2005 by Marokko achter de Schermen (Morocco behind the stage), both highly praised analyses of these countries. In 2009 he published the book ‘Giant Tuna, rise and fall of a world fish’, a portrait of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna which is brought on the border of extinction by the sushi industry in Japan.

As a journalist he wrote on a daily basis news articles, reportages, analysis and comments on political, social and economical affaires in Spain, Morocco and Portugal. From 2001 these reports had a special focus on immigration and terrorist affairs. He reported on the terrorist attacks in Casablanca (2003) and Madrid (2004) and their aftermath as well as on the changing migration routes from North and West-Africa towards Morocco and Spain.

A part from his work as writer and journalist Steven Adolf has been active as founder and president of The Tax Shop Amsterdam, a social tax consultancy (1982-1987), president of Redaction Council of NRC Handelsblad (1989-1990) and treasurer, vice-president and president of the Círculo de Corresponsales Extranjeros (1998-2006), the organisation of officially accredited correspondents in Spain.

Steven Adolf is a native Dutch speaker. He expresses himself easily in writing and spoken word in English, Spanish and French. He speaks and reads German, understands Portuguese and manages to understand Italian and Catalan.