Kajsa Ollongren

Jkvr. Karin Hildur "Kajsa" Ollongren (; ; born 28 May 1967) is a Dutch-Swedish politician serving as the Netherlands' Minister of Defence since 10 January 2022. A member of the Democrats 66 (D66), she previously served as Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and second Deputy Prime Minister in the third Rutte cabinet (2017–2022), and briefly as Mayor of Amsterdam (October 2017). Early life and education Ollongren was born on 28 May 1967 in Leiden to Jhr. Alexander Ollongren, a Dutch East Indies-born astronomer and computer scientist, and his Swedish wife Gunvor Lundgren. The Dutch Ollongren, originating from the Russian branch of the Finnish-Swedish noble family (originally named Ållongren), was incorporated into the untitled Dutch nobility in 2002, thereby giving her the noble predicate "jonkvrouw". Because of her Swedish mother, she also has Swedish citizenship. Ollongren grew up in Oegstgeest, where she attended the secondary school Rijnlands Lyceum between 1979 and 1985. She then went to the University of Amsterdam, where she initially studied economics between 1985 and 1986, but switched her field of study in 1986 to history, in which she obtained an M.A. degree in 1991. She subsequently studied public administration at the École nationale d'administration in Paris and foreign relations at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael. Career in the civil service Ollongren started her career in the civil service at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, becoming a policymaker in the area of Central and Eastern Europe there in 1992, in which capacity she trained young political parties of the newly established democracies in the area. She was head of parliamentary affairs within the ministry until 2001, and director of European Integration and Strategy from 2001 to 2004, and became Deputy Director General of the ministry in 2004.