Roland van Benthem
Encyclopedia
Roland van Benthem is a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 politician and former civil servant. Being a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...

 (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie) he currently is mayor of Eemnes
Eemnes
Eemnes is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht.-The town of Eemnes :Eemnes formerly consisted of two villages, Eemnes-Binnen and Eemnes-Buiten...

.

Biography

Educated as a Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...

 Van Benthem worked for the Tax and Customs Administration
Tax and Customs Administration
The Tax and Customs Administration is the tax collection and customs service of the government of the Netherlands. Part of the Ministry of Finance, it is responsible for supervising the import, export and transit of goods, detecting fiscal, economic and financial fraud, levying and collecting...

, at the Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Finance (Netherlands)
The Ministry of Finance is the Dutch ministry of finance: it is occupied with the national budget, taxation and financial economic policy, including supervision of financial markets...

 as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs: it is occupied with the external relations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including European cooperation and International development...

 and at the Queen's Office.

From 1994 to 2005 he was a councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 of Zeist
Zeist
Zeist is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, located east of the city of Utrecht.-Population centres :*Austerlitz*Bosch en Duin*Den Dolder*Huis ter Heide*Zeist- The town of Zeist :...

, which is a municipality of the province of Utrecht
Utrecht (province)
Utrecht is the smallest province of the Netherlands in terms of area, and is located in the centre of the country. It is bordered by the Eemmeer in the north, Gelderland in the east, the river Rhine in the south, South Holland in the west, and North Holland in the northwest...

. From 2004 to 2007 he was a member of the States-Provincial
States-Provincial
The States'-Provincial is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the Provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has the responsibility for matters of sub-national or regional importance...

 of the province of Utrecht. On September 1, 2005 he became mayor of Eemnes, which also is a municipality of the province of Utrecht.

Being a homosexual he was treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...

 of LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 organization COC Nederland
COC Nederland
COC Nederland is a Dutch organization for LGBT men and women. COC originally stood for Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum , which was intended as a "cover" name for its real purpose...

 from 2001 to 2004.

External links

Mayor Roland van Benthem, Municipality of Eemnes website
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