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There are any number of great Judges in the world, toiling away in relative obscurity. In this new recurring Feature Friday feature, I'm going to introduce you to some of them that I think it's important for you to know--and put faces to names you might frequently see.
The first is easily the highest-level Judge you might not know, despite the fact that he's one of our Level 5 (Professional-Level) judges, and certainly one of the best in the world. In future installments of this feature, we'll introduce several judges at a time, but this guy more than deserves his own. My dear friend Jaap Brouwer, all 11 feet tall of him (okay, he's about 6'5" but it's all the same to me) hails from Enschede, in the Netherlands.
He grew up in Magic with one of the other giants of the judging world, fellow Level 5 Gis Hoogendijk, (the guy the Pros used to refer to as "the tall one with the ponytail"). In fact, Jaap, Gis, and I all certified for Level 3 on the same weekend at Grand Prix Antwerpen, back in...well, ages ago. One of these days, no doubt Magic historians will talk about that GP as we Americans do about a certain July date in 1776. While the impressively-run PT Columbus was his first shot at Head Judging a Pro Tour, he's HJ'd too many Grands Prix and National Championships in Europe to mention.
Jaap brings exceptional organization and management skills, both theoretical and practical, to the table as a Judge. He's certainly one of the top folks in judging philosophy, and the creator of the "shadow judge" idea that you may have seen us recently using at high-level events. He was also one of the early supporters of running Judge Seminars at the Pro Tour, now installed as a regular feature. One of his other major contributions to the game is that he is the creator of the mIRC channel #mtgjudge (on EFNet), easily the most popular and useful chat room on the 'net for Judges, those that want to be Judges (and those that just want to spy on us).
He's just finished successfully defending his Master's thesis, which has lots to do with organization and management in the IT field, and which I helped him edit for grammar (in English, not Dutch; mijn nederlands is...um, really bad...I was going to say "kloten," but I think that's a dirty word) but confess to not really understanding the content all that well--but it sounded pretty damn impressive.
Jaap is an avid (but by his own admission not particularly skilled) Vintage player. Just the other day, he said "give me a fetch land on the table, Brainstorm and random five T1 cards in my hand, and I'm lost," but I know he loves the format. At Worlds 2004 he badgered me into playing it with him, and then *I* was the one lost with Brainstorm and five random T1 cards in my hand--but I'll have to thank him for the pleasure of turn 4 "Unmask, Unmask, swing for 24. Good game."
Jaap is married to the jaw-droppingly beautiful Marta, and they currently live in Eindhoven, which is far closer to civilization than Enschede, and they spend all their free time working on their house.
The final account of :B's awesome finish at Grand Prix: 
