31 Facts About Mark Strolenberg

Mark Frans Strolenberg was born on 5 April 1979 and is a Dutch politician of the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Mark Strolenberg founded an Internet company at the age of eighteen and later worked as an IT professional for different companies.

Mark Strolenberg unsuccessfully ran for member of the House of Representatives in the March 2021 general election, but he was appointed to that body in September after the resignation of Tamara van Ark.

Mark Strolenberg was born and raised in Hoogeveen, and he has a brother.

Mark Strolenberg's father was a primary school teacher and union leader, while his mother worked as a dental assistant.

Mark Strolenberg registered domain names and designed and maintained websites for small and medium-sized enterprises and for the municipality of Hoogeveen.

Mark Strolenberg later worked for several other companies while a municipal councilor.

Mark Strolenberg was an online manager for utility company Engie until his appointment to the House in 2021.

Mark Strolenberg has served on the board of his local water authority next to his job.

Mark Strolenberg was first elected to the 25-member board of the Reest en Wieden water authority in the 2004 election, when candidates were still unaffiliated with political parties.

Mark Strolenberg unsuccessfully ran for re-election in 2008 as a member of the VVD, but he did join the board at some point during the new term.

Mark Strolenberg was re-elected to the water board in 2015 as the VVD's lead candidate and kept his seat on the board after the merger of the Reest en Wieden and Groot Salland water authorities into Drents Overijsselse Delta in 2016.

Mark Strolenberg was re-elected once more in 2019 as lead candidate.

Mark Strolenberg gave up his position as leader of the VVD on the board upon his appointment to the House of Representatives in 2021, but he retained his seat until the next election in 2023.

Mark Strolenberg became a member of the municipal council of Hoogeveen on 10 September 2009, when VVD group leader Ewout Klok vacated his seat due to his moving out of the municipality.

Mark Strolenberg was placed third on the VVD's Hoogeveen party list in the 2010 municipal elections and was re-elected.

Mark Strolenberg pled for the town to be connected to the Internet with fiber-optic cables, and he sent a letter to national VVD leader Halbe Zijlstra opposing plans to close a prison and a mental institution in the area, citing a high unemployment rate.

Mark Strolenberg was named Hoogeveen councilor of the year in 2013, and he received a new term after his participation in the 2014 municipal elections as the VVD's third candidate.

However, all of Mark Strolenberg's alternatives failed to gain enough support except for one that still retained the eight days.

Mark Strolenberg wanted to experiment with free parking on Saturdays to draw more visitors to the town center.

Mark Strolenberg became the VVD's parliamentary group leader in the council in July 2016, when his predecessor Arjan van der Haar stepped down for health reasons.

Mark Strolenberg was his party's lead candidate in Hoogeveen in the March 2018 municipal elections and won his bid for re-election.

Mark Strolenberg left the Hoogeveen municipal on 23 September 2021 due to his appointment to the House of Representatives.

Mark Strolenberg was the VVD's 38th candidate in the March 2021 general election.

Mark Strolenberg campaigned in his home province with the slogan "Stem een liberale Drent in het parlement", and he tried to promote the technology industry in his province by, for example, calling for tests with self-driving cars.

Mark Strolenberg received 4,743 preference votes, three quarters of which were cast in Drenthe, but he was not elected due to the VVD winning 34 seats.

Mark Strolenberg was sworn into the House of Representatives on 7 September 2021 following the resignation of Tamara van Ark for health reasons.

Mark Strolenberg became the VVD's spokesperson for fisheries, animal welfare, countryside, relations with and financing of lower governments, municipal mergers, government transparency, working conditions in the public sector, legal position of political office holders, and nobility.

Mark Strolenberg is on the Committees for the Interior; for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; and for Social Affairs and Employment.

Mark Strolenberg cited a bleak political climate in the body.

Mark Strolenberg divorced his wife Miranda, whom he had met at the age of 17, in the late 2010s and came out around that same time.