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Jan van Zanen was born in 1961 and spent his childhood in Edam-Volendam. After grammar school, he completed his law studies in 1985 at the Free University in Amsterdam and at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York, USA. He fulfilled his military service as a reserve officer in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. He then went to work as a board and executive secretary at a national association of entrepreneurs. Van Zanen was a councilor in Utrecht from 1990, after which he became alderman for finance, economic affairs, public space and monuments in 1998. In the period 2003-2008 he was national chairman of the VVD. Van Zanen was mayor of Amstelveen from July 2005 to December 2013. January 1, 2014 he became mayor of Utrecht, since 3 June 2015 chairman of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and in the latter capacity also co-president of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). He has been mayor of The Hague since 1 July 2020.