Profile

I was born in 1940 (March 16) in Scheveningen. My nationality is Dutch. Both my father and my grandfather were born in Scheveningen as well. Both had the same name: Jan Pronk. My mother, Elisabeth van Geel, was born in Sewoe Galoer, Indonesia. Her father, Pieter van Geel, worked as chartered accountant. Both my father and my mother and also my brother Piet and my sister Liesbeth, were primary schoolteachers.

I studied at a grammar school in The Hague, hesitated to follow a university study in classical languages, history or mathematics and finally chose economics at the Netherlands School of Economics (NEH, presently: Erasmus University) in Rotterdam. This I never did regret, on the contrary. My main professor was Jan Tinbergen, who in 1969 was awarded, together with Ragnar Frisch, the first Nobel Prize in economics.  At that time, I had joined his team of researchers at the same university. I worked seven years as his research assistant and gave lectures on development economics. In those years I took part in activities of various non-governmental organizations in the field of development and peace. I was a youth delegate to the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Uppsala, 1968). 

In those years I developed political activities and joined the Dutch Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA), the social democratic party of the Netherlands. (www.pvda.nl).

photo: Anke van der Meer