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 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 entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

between 2003 and 2015. He previously served as

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

for the municipality of

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

from April 1998 to January 2003. From the time he entered the States General on 30 January 2003 to 29 November 2006, he was the youngest member of the House.

Education

Van Dam was born in

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 2023 this had grown to 126.998 ...

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 (), Abbreviation, abbr. TU/e, is a public university, public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its Bachelor of Science, BS ...

, where he studied

Technology Management Technology management refers to the integrated planning, design, optimization, operation and control of technological products, processes and services, in order to manage of the use of technology for human advantage. It contains a number of manag ...

. He was active in different student associations and also joined the Young Socialists (Jonge Socialisten), eventually 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. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

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 of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

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 organisations aiming to reduce their costs and increase their profits, or to accommodate reduced income. Depending on a company’s services or products, the strategies can vary. Every decision in the produ ...

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 (Pashto: ; 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 ...

. 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 was previously 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 Dutch MPs 2012–2017 Municipal councillors of Eindhoven Politicians from Utrecht (city) People from Zoetermeer State secretaries for economic affairs of the Netherlands Dutch MPs 2006–2010 Dutch MPs 2010–2012