Eelco holds a bachelor in Business Administration and a master in Sociology. The past 20 years, he worked for two international consultancy firms, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economical Affairs and Doctors Without Borders. Eelco worked and lived in Italy, France and the Democratic Republic of Congo and currently lives in his home country, The Netherlands, with his wife Babette, his son Sebastiaan and his daughter Salome.

Since 2006 Eelco specialised entirely on how to bend the resource curse, using transparency and accountability mechanisms. He currently specialises on Mining Community Development Agreements.