Ahmed Aboutaleb

Infobox_Politician
name = Ahmed Aboutaleb


caption =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1961|8|29|mf=y
birth_place =Beni Sidel, Morocco
residence = Amsterdam, Netherlands
death_date =
death_place =
office = State Secretary of Social Affairs and Employment
salary =
term_start = 2007
term_end = present
predecessor = Henk van Hoof
successor = incumbent
office2 = Amsterdam alderman for the Education and Social Affairs
salary2 =
term_start2 = 2004
term_end2 = 2007
predecessor2 = Rob Oudkerk
successor2 = Lodewijk Asscher a.i.
party = Labour Party (PvdA)
religion = Islam
constituency =
majority =
spouse =
children =
website =
footnotes =

Ahmed Aboutaleb (born August 29, 1961 in Beni Sidel) is a Dutch-Moroccan politician. He is State Secretary of Social Affairs and Employment in the fourth Balkenende cabinet.

Life

Aboutaleb grew up as a son of an imam in small Moroccan village in the Rif. Together with his mother and brothers he moved to the Netherlands in 1976. He then studied telecommunications, after which he found work as reporter for Veronica, NOS-radio and "RTL Nieuws". He also worked at the public relations department of the Dutch health ministry.

In 1998, Aboutaleb became director of the "Forum" organisation, an institute dealing with multi-culturalism in the Netherlands. He also got a post as civil servant with the municipality of Amsterdam.

In January 2004, Aboutaleb succeeded the plagued Rob Oudkerk as alderman in the city. Labour Party leader Wouter Bos in his book "Wat Wouter Wil" (English: "What Wouter Wants") said that if the Labour Party would partake in forming the next cabinet after the 2006 elections, Aboutaleb would be offered a minister post. Abouteleb himself claimed at the time he wanted to focus on his work as alderman and that it was "important first that the PvdA wins the elections." [nl icon cite news|title=Bos biedt Aboutaleb ministerspost aan|url=http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/laatste_24_uur/artikel/asp/artnr/123625/|publisher=Elsevier|date=2006-11-01] When the PvdA really did become part of a new coalition, Aboutaleb was just offered the job of State Secretary for social affairs, but said that he didn't mind the lesser function, and believed he could learn a lot from Piet Hein Donner, the candidate-minister of social affairs. [cite news|title=New cabinet ministers announced|url=http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=36503|publisher=Expatica|date=2007-02-14]

References

External links

* [http://www.amsterdam.nl/gemeente/college/ahmed_aboutaleb_0 Municipal homepage]