Dr. Job Cohen

Opening ceremony: De Rode Hoed, Friday 8th

10.00 – 10.30 am
Dr. Job Cohen
Before becoming Mayor of Amsterdam in 2001, mr. Cohen was a professor and rector magnificus at Maastricht University. From 1993 to 1994 Cohen served as Deputy Minister of Education and Science, after which he returned to Maastricht University from 1995 to 1998, again as rector magnificus. Also in 1995 he was elected as a member of the Upper House of the Dutch parliament. After a brief interim directorship in 1998 of the VPRO broadcasting organisation (public sector), he resigned from the Upper House of parliament and served from 1998 to 2001 as Deputy Minister of Justice under Labour Prime Minister Wim Kok, and introduced a new Dutch immigration law. Cohen resigned from the cabinet at the end of 2000. Mayor Cohen personally has brought the fight against poverty in urban areas back on the political agenda and is, again in close collaboration with his aldermen, working hard on improving the economic position of Amsterdam. The mayor is involved in international cooperation with countries like Surinam, Morocco, Turkey, Ghana, and the Netherlands Antilles (all of which are the countries of origin of major immigration groups in Amsterdam).