Marlies Leegwater is Head of the Bologna Secretariat, which is located in Brussels. The Secretariat is composed of four persons seconded by the four Ministers for Higher Education of the three Benelux countries, jointly hosting the 2009 ministerial conference.
 

Marlies Leegwater joined the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in The Netherlands in 1985. Her responsibilities ranged from development cooperation, cooperation with countries other than EU, quality assurance of higher education and internationalisation. From the start onward she has been involved in the Bologna Process and stimulated the development of shared generic descriptors for the levels of first, second and third cycle higher education (see www.jointquality.org ), to ensure transparency in levels of these, for some countries, new qualifications. Before she moved to the Secretariat she represented The Netherlands in the Bologna Follow-Up group.
 

She graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Master in Biology and a PhD in Tse-tse fly rearing while being employed as a university researcher. Earlier she taught Biology at a VET school in Kenya.