Martin Thomsen is a Lieutenant Colonel and Deputy Head of College at the Danish Emergency Management Agency, Emergency Services College. He joined the Board of Directors in Lanka Software Foundation in 2004, where he in March 2007 joint the new board SAHANA Transition Board of Directors, tasked with the reorganisation of the organisation, paving the way for the inauguration of the SAHANA Software Foundation (SSF) in March 2009. He is furthermore a member of the SSF Executive Committee for Financial Oversight, and was in May 2010 appointed as the Foundation Secretary.

He has as manager of executive teams initiated and managed restructuring of organisations, headed strategy development and goal setting processes, including budgeting and monitoring activities. He is experienced in both growing and winding down businesses.

He has developed, initiated and managed organisational changes and human resource development inclusive Operational Efficiency and LEAN processes, HR Policy, Appreciative Inquiry, performance and development review systems for individuals and groups.

His previous positions the last decade has been as acting Colonel and School Director of the Danish Emergency Management Agency Staff College, Regional Commander at the Danish Emergency Management Agency Funen, Major and Chief of Staff within the same organisation.

Martin Thomsen has furthermore served in the United Nations (UN) as Head of Department at the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo from 2000 to 2001. He joined in May 2003 the UN as a Consultant and Expert, as a member of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as a member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team (UNDAC), where he has responded to incidents in Sri Lanka (Tsunami 2004) and the flooding following torrential rains in Albania (2010).

He is furthermore an EU High Level Coordinator at the European Commission within the European Civil Protection Mechanism for reinforced cooperation in Civil Protection assistance interventions (MIC) since March 2004 and a EU Multifunctional Civilian Response Team member (Civilian Crisis Management) of the Council of the European Union (CEU/CRT) since January 2006.