non-profit director and serves on several state commissions and councils on behalf of the government, and works as a trade association executive serving as Chairman of the Healthcare Providers association since January 2018 and became a Member of the Social and Economic Council for the Industry and Employers confederation (VNO-NCW) in February 2018. Early life Henricus Gregorius Jozeph Kamp was born on 23 July 1952 in Hengelo in the Netherlands Province of Overijssel in a Roman Catholic family. He left the Roman Catholic faith years later and became a Humanist. After completing his HAVO diploma he worked at two wholesalers in Enschede, Borculo and Tilburg until 1977. From 1977 to 1980 he attended the auditors training at the Tax Training in Utrecht. He worked as an investigator for the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) until 1986. Politics From 1976 to 1994 he was a member of the municipal council in Borculo. From 1986 he was in also alderman in Borculo. From 1987 to 1994 he was a member of the Provincial Council of Gelderland. He became a Member of the House of Representatives on 17 May 1994. On 22 July 2002, Kamp became Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. He was Minister of Defence from December 12, 2002, till 22 February 2007. After early elections were held as a result of parliamentary agreements following the formation of the minority cabinet Balkenende III. As part of his "farewell tour" as Minister of Defence, Henk Kamp visited the Dutch troops in Afghanistan and paid his respects to president Hamid Karzai. President Karzai awarded Henk Kamp the High State Medal of Ghazi Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan. Kamp left the House of Representatives on 1 January 2009 to head the transformation of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius to special municipalities within the Netherlands. On 13 September 2012, the day after the parliamentary elections, Kamp was asked to prepare for the formation of a new cabinet and had exploratory conversations with several parties. Already on that very day the Parliamentary leaders in the House of Representatives met with the President of the House of Representatives Gerdi Verbeet. His opinion after the talks was to start a formation on a coalition with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Labour Party with himself and former Leader of the Labour Party Wouter Bos as informateurs. The formation resulted in the forming of