Mark A.J. Snoeren (born 25 August 1974) is a Dutch politician, who served as 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 ...

between September 2020 and March 2021. He is a member of the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party in ...

(VVD). Snoeren has worked for the

Royal Marechaussee The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee ( nl, Koninklijke Marechaussee, abbreviated to KMar) is the national gendarmerie force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, performing military and civilian police duties. It is also one of the two national pol ...

, and he owns a business in

Nieuwegein Nieuwegein () is a municipality and city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. It is bordered on the north by the city of Utrecht (city), Utrecht, the provincial capital. It is separated from Vianen to the south by the ...

. He also held a seat in that town's municipal council for twelve years.

Early life and non-political career

He was born in 1974 in the

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

village

Udenhout Udenhout is a village and a former municipality in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located northeast of Tilburg, north of Berkel-Enschot and south of the National Parc Loonse en Drunense Duinen. The municipality of Udenhout (includi ...

. He followed training to become a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

of the

and later served as a

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

. He is still a Marechaussee

reserve officer A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve f ...

. Snoeren subsequently worked as a manager at the municipal government of

Lingewaard Lingewaard () is a municipality in the eastern Netherlands. It is located in the province of Gelderland, in the most eastern part of the Betuwe. The municipality is situated in the lowlands between the major cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen, where ...

, as a safety

program manager Program Manager is the shell of Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x operating systems. This shell exposed a task-oriented graphical user interface (GUI), consisting of ''icons'' (shortcuts for programs) arranged into ''program groups''. It replaced ' ...

Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and the ...

, and as a strategic advisor at

TenneT TenneT is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany. ''TenneT B.V.'' is the national electricity transmission system operator of the Netherlands, headquartered in Arnhem. Controlled and owned by the Dutch g ...

, a transition system operator. While being employed, he studied public management at

The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University of Applied Sciences ( nl, De Haagse Hogeschool), abbreviated THUAS, is a university of applied sciences with its campuses located in and around The Hague in the Randstad metropolitan region in the west of the Netherlands. Th ...

and earned a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

degree from

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

. In September 2017, Snoeren took over the

dry ski slope A dry ski slope or artificial ski slope is a ski slope that mimics the attributes of snow using materials that are stable at room temperature, to enable people to ski, snowboard or snow tube in places where natural, snow-covered slopes are inc ...

Skipiste Nieuwegein. When somebody set fire to the ski slope's restaurant at night one year later, Snoeren managed to extinguish it, limiting the damage.

Politics

Snoeren entered Nieuwegein politics in March 2010 when he became a member of its municipal council after the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

. His party received a plurality of the seats. After his second term began in 2014, he became the VVD's party leader in the Nieuwegein council. He was re-elected in 2018 as his party's . In the next election in 2022, Snoeren was one of the VVD's . He became a member of the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

upon his farewell from the council on 29 March 2022.

House of Representatives (2020–2021)

Snoeren was placed 51st on the VVD's

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

during the

2017 general election This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 November ...

. He was not elected, as his party received 33 seats and his 1,906 votes were not enough to meet the preferential vote threshold. He had also been on the VVD's party list in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

(place 66). When MP

Anne Mulder Anne Mulder (born 14 December 1969) is a Dutch politician and former civil servant. A member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), he served in the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2020, where he focused on matters of healt ...

vacated his seat in 2020 in order to become an alderman in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, Snoeren succeeded him because of his position on the 2017 party list. He was sworn into office on 22 September. He remained a member of the Nieuwegein municipal council with public order, safety, international policy, and governmental renewal as specialties, but he left from his position as party leader two days later. Snoeren was on the parliamentary Committees for Defence and for the Interior. Within his party, he was the spokesperson on lower governments and veterans' policy. He decided not to run for re-election in March 2021, as he wanted to focus on his business. His term ended on 31 March.

Personal life

While an MP, Snoeren lived in the Utrecht town

with his wife and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snoeren, Mark 1974 births 21st-century Dutch politicians Leiden University alumni Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors in Utrecht (province) People from Nieuwegein People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians The Hague University of Applied Sciences alumni Members of the Order of Orange-Nassau