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Jack de Vries

State Secretary for Defence

Jack (J.G.) de Vries was born on 25 July 1968.

After his pre-university education, De Vries studied Political Science at VU University Amsterdam. He subsequently completed the NGPR-A and NGPR-B courses (public relations and communication).

In 1987, he began work as an assistant to the municipal councillors of the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) in Amsterdam. In 1989, he became personal assistant to CDA Member of the House of Representatives H. Koetje, a position he held for the next three years.

In 1993, De Vries became a public information officer/journalist in the Royal Netherlands Army, first as a conscript, later as a professional soldier. After completing officer training with the cavalry at the School for Cavalry Reserve Officers and later at the Royal Military Academy in Breda, he was stationed with the National Command in The Hague.

In 1995, he was appointed Head of Public Information at the Philadelphia Care Foundation, a national organisation that provides care and support to people with mental disabilities.

De Vries returned to the CDA in 1997. Until 2002 he held various appointments, firstly Head of Public Information of the CDA parliamentary party and then spokesman for the chairman of the parliamentary party and for the party leader. During that period he therefore worked under Enneüs Heerma, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Jan Peter Balkenende. His subsequent appointment was that of political secretary to the Prime Minister at the Ministry of General Affairs, until 2005.

In 2005, De Vries was appointed as the national campaign manager for the CDA, for the municipal elections of March 2006, the Provincial Council elections of March 2007 and the national elections of November 2006. He then worked as adviser to the Prime Minister, during which period he was also the project leader for the 'first hundred days of the Balkenende IV government' project, and was responsible for drafting the policy programme entitled Samen werken aan Nederland (working on the Netherlands together).

In 2007, De Vries joined Boer & Croon Corporate Communication as an associate partner, where he was public information adviser in the field of reputation management.

He became State Secretary for Defence in the fourth Balkenende government on 18 December 2007.