Biography
Petra Zijp, graduated from Amsterdam University in 1993 (English and Italian) and in 1994 (Law) and joined NautaDutilh in 1995. In 1999 and 2000 she was based in the London office, after which she returned to the Amsterdam office at the beginning of 2001. She became a partner of NautaDutilh in 2002. She was the Managing Partner of NautaDutilh between 2017 and 2022. At present, she leads NautaDutilh’s Capital Markets Group and is active in the firm's Investment Management Group. She has acted as special Dutch counsel to companies, underwriters and investors in a variety of public and private equity and debt offerings and listings on Euronext Amsterdam and abroad (New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq National Market) of both Dutch and foreign stock.
She is also one of NautaDutilh's Inclusion Partners and in that capacity leads internal and external initiatives in the field of Diversity and Inclusion. Having spent almost 30 years at NautaDutilh, social innovation and a ‘one firm’ mind-set have always run like a thread throughout Petra’s career, from setting up a new practice area to breaking with the (outdated) conventions and artificial divisions that exist in many corporate law firms. Under her leadership, the firm's talent development program shifted to soft and collaboration skills instead of legal skills and was opened up to all employees (legal and other professionals), to broaden perspectives and increase collaboration and synergy across the firm. Thanks to Petra, collaboration too has become the cornerstone of the firm’s remuneration policy, which again contributes to (further) blurring the lines between legal and non-legal disciplines and overcoming a silo-based mentality. Petra has championed many LGBT and D&I initiatives, including generational diversity and neurodiversity. She initiated thorough generation research and workshops for all employees (including partners) and gave young professionals a formal seat at the table via the instalment of the Young Professionals Board. The Young Professionals Board encompasses 18 Millennials from different offices and backgrounds and is installed to support the board to achieve a better understanding of the motivations, ambitions and expectations of new generations within the firm.
