Vera Alida Bergkamp (; born 1 June 1971) is a Dutch politician. A member of the
Democrats 66 (D66) party, she has 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 20 September 2012.
On 7 April 2021, she was elected
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Early life and education
Bergkamp was born in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
to a Dutch mother and a
Moroccan father.
At the age of 20, she adopted her mother's surname, because her father's surname was too difficult to write and to pronounce.
Bergkamp studied
human resource management at the
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
She also holds a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in
public administration
Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit est ...
and
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Career
From 2008 to 2012, Bergkamp was the director of the
human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...
department of the Social Insurance Bank (SVB), a Dutch
quango
A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where N ...
responsible for administering national insurance schemes.
From 2010 to 2012, she chaired the
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, ...
organisation
COC Nederland
COC Nederland, also known as COC Netherlands, is a Dutch LGBTQ+ rights group founded in 1946. COC originally stood for ''Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum'' (Center for Culture and Leisure), which was intended as a "cover" name for its real purpose ...
, as well as held a seat in the
district council of
Amsterdam-Centrum.
In the
2012 general election, Bergkamp was elected into the House of Representatives as a member of D66. She was re-elected in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
and
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
. On 7 April 2021, she succeeded
Khadija Arib
Khadija Arib (; ar, خديجة عريب; born 10 October 1960) is a Moroccan-Dutch politician of the Labour Party, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands from 12 December 2015 to 7 April 2021. In the 2016 S ...
as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Personal life
Bergkamp is openly
lesbian.
She is married and has two children.
See also
*
2021 Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives election
References
External links
Profile at Parlement.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergkamp, Vera
1971 births
Living people
21st-century Dutch women politicians
21st-century Dutch politicians
Democrats 66 politicians
Dutch columnists
Dutch human resource management people
Dutch people of Moroccan descent
Dutch political consultants
Lesbian politicians
LGBT members of the Parliament of the Netherlands
LGBT rights activists from the Netherlands
LGBT writers from the Netherlands
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Municipal councillors of Amsterdam-Centrum
Speakers of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni
Dutch women columnists
Writers from Amsterdam
20th-century Dutch women