Edward was born in the Netherlands of a Dutch mother and English father. His parents worked with MRA in Germany after the Second World War, as part of Frank Buchman's team supporting the reconciliation of European nations. He grew up in several countries, and upon finishing his secondary education in Britain at the age of 16, he started work with MRA - which has continued to this day. Early experience was in Scandinavia, India, New Zealand and the USA. In 1981 he married Elisabeth, a Swede, and they lived in Oxford UK from 1984 until June 2011 when they moved to live in Sweden. They have two 'children', Philip (married to Melanie) and Karin. Their main work has been with young people. Edward helped create and run the Foundations for Freedom programme from 1993-99. He was national Chairman of the millennium initiative, the Clean Slate Campaign, in 1999. From 2002-2008 he oversaw the development of IofC’s global internet work. From October 2010 to the end of 2014 he was Executive Vice President of IofC International.