Jack de Vries

About Jack de Vries

Jack de Vries is the former advisor of Jan-Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister and responsible for the initiation, strategic direction and management of the local and national election campaigns for the Christian Democratic Party.

Jack de Vries transformed a moribund campaign team into a thriving organization with 6000+ volunteers, he raised the campaign funding that doubled the party’s election budgets from previous times, he managed the budget and improved strategic allocation of financial resources. For the campaign he recruited a team of 10 top senior campaign aides, including two former Chief Executives of a global Communications Agency and a global Direct Marketing Company to built a strong team and ensure excellent teamwork and camaraderie.

He worked closely with the Party Chairman, Parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of the party in shaping the policy outlook for the next four years. He initiated novel polling methodologies to identify societal trends and policy issues and during these tasks he avoided many of the traditional battles between the factions in the party. In the end he oversaw a permanent staff of over 50, within the party in the lead up to the election and an increasing volunteer participation and engagement.

During his Chief Political Counsel work he handled all political coordination and interface with the parliamentary leadership of the party, supported the Prime Minister in all his preparations for appearances and debates in parliament, managed staff work in preparation for parliamentary debates, policy development and public appearances and managed the communications activities including speech writing, management of media relationships and public appearances.

During the Prime Minister personal campaign in the 2003 parliamentary elections, Jack de Vries lead everything and resulted in the re-election of the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

Jack de Vries is currently working for an leading Dutch agency in positioning, reputation-, issues management and public affairs. He advises different organizations and companies and is specialized in reputation management, communication during crisis and CEO coaching. He also gives speeches on what companies can learn from politics, the importance of stakeholders, the visible role of the CEO and management of publicity risks.

Jack de Vries is fluent in English and Dutch.