Elisabeth Maria Josepha "Lilianne" Ploumen (; born 12 July 1962) is a Dutch politician and activist who served as Leader of the Labour Party from January 2021 until April 2022. She had been a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

since 2017, as well as

parliamentary leader A parliamentary leader is a political title or a descriptive term used in various countries to designate the person leading a parliamentary group or caucus in a legislative body, whether it be a national or sub-national legislature. They are their ...

since 2021, leaving the House of Representatives upon her resignation as party leader. Ploumen previously served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation from 2012 to 2017.

Early life and career

Ploumen was born in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

on 12 July 1962.Drs. E.M.J. (Lilianne) Ploumen
(in Dutch), ''Parlement & Politiek''. Retrieved 2 February 2017. In 1983, while still at university, Ploumen became a community outreach worker in the Crooswijk area of Rotterdam. Two years later she joined the Institute of Psychological Market Research (IPM), a research-based consultancy, working in the statistics department as a research project leader. From 1990 to 1992 she was a marketing and research manager for Foster Parents Plan in Amsterdam. Ploumen then moved to

Plan A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...

, the London-based umbrella organization, in 1993. In 1995 she founded Ploumen Projecten, an organization specializing in market research and innovation for commercial and non-profit clients.2105 Speaker: Lilianne Ploumen
Trade and Sustainable Development Symposium. Ploumen was director of Mama Cash and worked for

Cordaid Cordaid is an internationally operating value-based emergency relief and development organization, mostly working in conflict-affected countries. It is one of the biggest international development organizations in the Netherlands, with a netwo ...

as head of quality and strategy and subsequently as director of international programmes.

Political career

Ploumen became a member of the Labour Party in 2003. She was the chairwoman of the Labour Party from 6 October 2007, after she beat former Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment

Jan Pronk Johannes Pieter "Jan" Pronk Jr. (; born 16 March 1940) is a retired Dutch politician and diplomat of the Labour Party (PvdA) and activist. Pronk studied Economics at the Rotterdam School of Economics obtaining a Master of Economics degree and ...

with 54% of the vote. She resigned from this post on 22 January 2012 and was succeeded by

Hans Spekman Johannes Leonardus "Hans" Spekman (; born 6 April 1966) is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party. He was a local politician in Utrecht from 1994 to 2006 and a member of the House of Representatives from 2006 to 2012. He was the party chair of ...

. Ploumen served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the

second Rutte cabinet The second Rutte cabinet, also called the Rutte–Asscher cabinet, was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 5 November 2012 until 26 October 2017. The cabinet was formed by the conservative-liberal People's Party for ...

from 5 November 2012 until 2017. Early on in her tenure, Ploumen and Secretary of State of Finance Frans Weekers submitted a proposal in 2013 to renegotiate the Netherlands’ tax treaties with 23 least-developed countries. Their move was widely seen as marking a turning point for a country that long deflected accusations that it is a key player in tax avoidance by multinational corporations.Matt Steinglass (6 September 2013)
Netherlands to review tax treaties with least developed countries
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

''. With their proposal, Ploumen and Weekers followed the recommendations of a government-commissioned report which, for the first time, agreed with tax-justice groups that developing countries miss out on substantial tax revenues because of their treaties with the Netherlands. During her time in office, Ploumen increased the Netherlands' support to the

GAVI GAVI, officially Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (previously the GAVI Alliance, and before that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a public–private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization ...

vaccination alliance, from €200 million to €250 million for period from 2016 until 2020. Between 2014 and 2016, she co-chaired the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-Operation (alongside José Antonio Meade Kuribreña). She also served a two-year term as member of the

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Gr ...

’s (WBG) Advisory Council on Gender and Development from 2015 until 2017. In January 2016, Ploumen headed an official Dutch delegation to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, including some 60 businesses. During the trip, it was announced that global consumer products company

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

would return to Cuba after a several-year absence, agreeing to build a $35 million soap and toothpaste factory in Cuba’s special development zone at the port of Mariel west of Havana. Most notably, however, Ploumen started the
She Decides
campaign, an initiative of about 50 countries, organizations and foundations to finance global family planning initiatives after a U.S. halt to such programs left NGOs worldwide with a large funding gap. Within six months the organization received pledges worth US$300 million.Aletta Jacobs Prize 2018 awarded to minister Lilianne Ploumen

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

, press release of 25 September 2017. As minister, she pledged 10 million euro to counter the Mexico City policy. Following the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

, international news media widely considered Ploumen one of the candidates for the nomination to become the Netherlands’ member of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

; the post eventually went to

Frans Timmermans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplo ...

. In the Dutch elections in 2017, in which the PvdA won nine seats, Ploumen was tenth on the electoral list, but due to preferential votes still won a seat in the Dutch House of Representatives. On 12 April 2022, Ploumen resigned as both leader of the Labour Party and as member of the Dutch House of Representatives. In a statement explaining her decision, she stated to "not feel at home" in her role as party leader.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* ''

Opzij ''Opzij'' is a mainstream Dutch feminist monthly magazine. The title means "out of the way!"Cas Wouters, "Changes in the 'Lust Balance' of Sex and Love since the Sexual Revolution: The Example of the Netherlands," in History and profile ''Opzij ...

'', Member of the Board

International organizations

African Development Bank The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution headquartered in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, since September 2014. The AfDB is a financial provider to African governments and private companies ...

(AfDB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors *

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...

(ADB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors * European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors * Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors *

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA),

, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors *

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors

Non-profit organizations

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decisi ...

(ECFR), Member of the Council * ''Stop Aids Now!'', Member of the Supervisory Board * WOMEN Inc., Member of the Board

Recognition

* 2017 – Dame Commander of the

Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of ...

(

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

) * 2018 – Aletta Jacobs Prize

References

External links

;Official
Drs. E.M.J. (Lilianne) Ploumen
Parlement.com , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ploumen, Lilianne 1962 births Living people 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians Abortion-rights activists Dutch anti-poverty advocates Chairmen of the Labour Party (Netherlands) Dames Commander of St. Gregory the Great Dutch human rights activists Dutch management consultants Dutch nonprofit directors Dutch Roman Catholics Dutch social workers Dutch women activists Dutch women's rights activists Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni Leaders of the Labour Party (Netherlands) LGBT rights activists from the Netherlands Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Ministers for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands Politicians from Amsterdam Politicians from Maastricht Women government ministers of the Netherlands Women human rights activists