Adrie worked on his first government digital project in 1987, years before the internet. He ran digital teams throughout the dot-com boom, when open-source content management systems were still science fiction. He's seen many trends come and go. Before switching to government digital services in 2012, he was a Wall Street Journal-quoted business editor.

His current work in UK government digital services reaches over 10 million people monthly, many of whom are vulnerable. He has created content for the Cabinet Office (the UK Prime Minister's department), the Metropolitan Police and Universal Credit, Britain's flagship welfare reform programme supporting 5.6 million claimants. His micro-trauma framework challenges the way standard user research misses the cognitive harm experienced under stress. He is a featured author on the Button blog and a keynote speaker on content design and compliance.

Then, helping his elderly, recently widowed mother navigate government and financial services digital opened his eyes to the reality of the services he'd spent decades creating. Turns out 40 years of professional experience means nothing when you're watching someone you love get systematically excluded by services that look perfectly accessible on paper. He is now a senior content designer specialising in trauma-informed practice. He's Dutch. When not working in the UK, he lazes by the rooftop pool of his home - an actual fortress - in the south of France with his partner and two social media influencer dogs.