Petra Stienen (1965) is an author, strategic advisor, leadership coach and moderator. She served as a diplomat from 1992 to 2009, focusing on the Middle East, the United States and the European Union. After her diplomatic career she worked at BMC, a Dutch consultancy for public sector innovation. In 2011, she launched her own practice, focusing on inclusion, human rights, gender and leadership for clients in government, business and civil society.
From 2015 to 2023 she served as a senator for the social-liberal party D66 and was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2017–2023).
She authored several Dutch books including Dreams of an Arab Spring (2008), The Other Arab Voices (2012), Back to the Thunder Mountain (2015) and Increase Your Charisma & Get More Attention for Your Own Story (2019, with Maximiliaan Winkelhuis).
Stienen is chair of the Supervisory Board of the Bonnefanten museum in Maastricht, housing commissioner at Wonen Limburg and a board member of Action for Hope, a cultural organisation in the Middle East.
She grew up in the Donderberg neighbourhood in Roermond and studied Arabic and Middle Eastern studies at the universities of Leiden, Cairo and London. She received several awards, including the Women in the Media Award (2012), the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund Limburg Inspiration Award (2013), and the Aletta Jacobs Emancipation Prize (2016).