Drs Norbert Stadhouders studied economics and business at the universities of Twente (Netherlands) and Birmingham (UK). In 1983 he began his career with PriceWaterhouse in London, where he added an English training as an accountant to his qualifications. Between 1986 and 2002 positions at various subsidiaries of United Technologies Corporation in Hartford (USA), Brussels (Belgium), Liverpool (UK), Abu Dhabi (UAE), Munich (Germany) and Raleigh (USA) followed.

From the 1st October 2002 he joined Balfour Beatty Rail  based in Munich as finance director with responsibility for subsidiaries at home and abroad.