Chris van Dam has been chairman of the Dutch Safety Board since 1 May 2023.
“It’s an honour to be able to contribute to people’s trust in their everyday safety. If you get on a bus, for example, you are confident that it is safe. So you surrender part of the control over your safety. After all, as a passenger you have no influence over the driving skills of the driver, the maintenance of the bus, or the layout of the road system. The work of the Safety Board is powerful in that, together with all kinds of other parties, we make efforts to compensate for that lack of control. People can rely on that. We don’t want to point a finger, but we are committed to learning from occurrences. In doing so, we are investing in safety. Also for the future.”
Van Dam trained as a lawyer and has extensive experience within the police and judicial professions. He worked in various police positions in The Hague and subsequently served as public prosecutor in Amsterdam and The Hague, among others.
Van Dam was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the CDA party from March 2017 until April 2021. In 2021, he chaired the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Childcare Benefits. He gave up his membership of the CDA party in July 2022.
Additional positions
- Board chair of the Stek The Hague Foundation. Stek The Hague facilitates various projects related to sheltered work, poverty alleviation and support for undocumented immigrants.
- Board chair of the Epafras Leiden Foundation. The Epafras Leiden Foundation provides spiritual care for Dutch citizens who are detained abroad.
- Member of the Supervisory Board of the Safecin Foundation (Fraud Help Desk) in Apeldoorn.
- Chair of the CoC Police Data Advisory Committee. This committee supervises the work of JUSTIS, the Ministry of Justice and Security’s screening authority, where it involves the use of police data for the purpose of issuing certificates of conduct.
- Chairman of the VOG P Advisory Committee (advisory committee for Certificate of Conduct - police data). This committee supervises the work of JUSTIS, the Ministry of Justice and Security’s screening authority, in cases where police data is involved in issuing certificates of conduct.
- Deputy judge of the Rotterdam District Court.