Jan van Zanen - (Mayor of The Hague)

Jan van Zanen (b. 1961) grew up in Edam-Volendam and studied law at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Cornell Law School in the US. After completing military service as a reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he worked for a national business association until 1998. He served as a municipal councillor and later alderman for finance in Utrecht, and was national chairman of the VVD from 2003 to 2008. He was mayor of Amstelveen (2005–2013), then Utrecht (2014–2020), and has been mayor of The Hague since 2020. Van Zanen chaired the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) from 2015 to 2023 and is a strong international advocate for cities, serving as an OECD Champion Mayor, Chair of United Cities and Local Governments (from October 2024), Co-Chair of the Strong Cities Network (since June 2023), and member of the VNG Committee on Europe and International (since June 2023).