Martinus Hendricus Petrus "Martijn" van Dam (born 1 February 1978) is a Dutch engineer and politician. A member of the
Labour Party (PvdA), he served as
State Secretary for
Economic Affairs
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...
from 3 November 2015 until 1 September 2017 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 F ...
. He was 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 2003 and 2015. He previously served as
councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
for the municipality of
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,[Zoetermeer
Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...]
and grew up in
Huissen
Huissen () is a city with city rights in the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. The town is located in the Betuwe region and belongs to the municipality of Lingewaard, in the area between the major cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen. Huissen ...
. He moved to Eindhoven with his family in 1990, where he attended the
Eindhoven University of Technology
The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...
(studying
Technology Management
Technology management is a set of management disciplines that allows organizations to manage their technology, technological fundamentals to create customer advantage. Typical concepts used in technology management are:
* Technology strategy (a lo ...
). He was active in different student associations and also joined the
Young Socialists (Jonge Socialisten) (becoming the president of the Eindhoven chapter).
Political involvement
Eindhoven City Council
In 1998 he ran for the Eindhoven City Council and became a councillor, later speaker for the Labour Party caucus in the city council and member of the national party committee of the Labour Party. After graduating from university he worked at
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
until 2003.
House of Representatives
In 2003 he was elected member of the House of Representatives, becoming the youngest member. He moved to
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
in 2005. In his first period in the House Labour Party caucus, Van Dam was spokesman for media, technology and innovation. He quickly established himself in 2003 by frequently asking questions about the Discharge Fraud in the IT sector, whereby probation period discharges were being abused as a
cost-cutting
Cost reduction is the process used by companies to reduce their costs and increase their profits. Depending on a company’s services or products, the strategies can vary. Every decision in the product development process affects cost: design i ...
measure. Following the 2006 elections he became spokesman for foreign affairs, which made him the face of the Labour Party in the debate on the extension of the military mission in
Uruzgan
Uruzgan (Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as th ...
. In March 2007 he joined the caucus leadership. Van Dam was elected Political Talent of the Year 2005 by the parliamentary press corps.
State Secretary for Economic Affairs
In November 2015 Van Dam became State Secretary for Economic Affairs, succeeding
Sharon Dijksma
Sharon Alida Maria Dijksma (born 16 April 1971) is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Utrecht since 2020. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), she previously was a State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science from 2007 ...
, who moved to the Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment.
He resigned on 1 September 2017.
References
*
Parlement.com biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dam, Martijn van
1978 births
Living people
Dutch agnostics
Dutch engineers
Eindhoven University of Technology alumni
Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Municipal councillors of Eindhoven
Politicians from Utrecht (city)
People from Zoetermeer
State Secretaries for Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
21st-century Dutch politicians