Louis Zuidgeest has been working for the Dutch government in the policy area of car exhaust emissions since 1996. Initially, he worked for the Ministry of the Environment and nowadays for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
Before his career as a policymaker, he worked as a researcher in traffic emissions at the Dutch research organisation TNO. He graduated in 1984 as a mechanical engineer from the Technical University in Delft. In recent years, he has been involved in developing a new test for checking the particulate filters in the Periodical Technical Inspection (APK).