Natalia Liane den Haan (born 24 August 1967) is a Dutch politician and former nonprofit director, who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2021.
She was the managing director of LGBT rights organization COC Nederland from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently filled that same position at senior advocacy group ANBO. Den Haan left the latter organization after she had been chosen in October 2020 to lead the pensioners' party 50PLUS in the 2021 general election. She succeeded Henk Krol and was elected to the House of Representatives. Following an internal conflict within 50PLUS, she left the party in May 2021 while keeping her seat. Den Haan founded her own party, Goud Nederland (Gold Netherlands), the following year.
Den Haan has also held a seat in the Social and Economic Council (SER) and in the Woerden municipal council for four years as a member of Democrats 66 and the Labour Party.
Early life and career
Den Haan was born on 24 August 1967 in Woerden in the province Utrecht. Her father worked as manager of a mortar factory, while her mother was a hairdresser. Den Haan attended the secondary schools Kalsbeek College and Minkema College, located in the same town, at and level. She subsequently studied nursery at a university of applied sciences and worked as a hospital nurse. Den Haan's father died when she was 18 years old.
At the start of the 1990s, after having studied business administration at The Hague University of Applied Sciences for four years, she took a job as operations coordinator at a catering and party service company. Den Haan left that company in 1993 and thereafter worked in recruitment and organization consultancy. She was an operations coordinator and later operations and product group manager at Van der Kruijs RPD Groep until 1998. She then worked for two years as a senior consultant at Verstrate Business Development Support before becoming CEO of The Office Managers in 2000.
COC Nederland (2001–2004) Den Haan became the managing director of COC Nederland, an LGBT rights organization, in 2001. In an interview, she told that she had chosen for the federation because she wanted to work at a more idealistic place.
Den Haan managed to put the COC's finances and membership records in order, but the organization's problems returned while she was on maternity leave. Because of this, she advocated management reforms. Subsequently, the board of directors suspended her in spring 2004 and started a dismissal procedure, arguing that her leadership had resulted in a budget deficit and that she had pitted employees of COC against the board. A local judge determined that the suspension was unjust, as no proof was found to support the accusations. During an emergency general meeting in July, Den Haan was voted out by the COC's members, while the board resigned. She left her post on 1 November. The internal quarrel was one of the reasons for the establishment of the competing organization Homo LesBische Federatie Nederland.
ANBO (2005–2020) In May 2005, Den Haan started working as managing director of ANBO, an organization with over 150,000 members advocating for the interests of the elderly. She managed to improve the financial situation of the association, which was €3 million in debt and was close to bankruptcy. ANBO became an affiliate of the trade union federation FNV in 2009 after the organizations had cooperated on multiple issues. The move was supported by Den Haan, who argued that it would give ANBO more tools to serve the interests of the elderly. It also resulted in Den Haan receiving a seat in the Social and Economic Council (SER).
Under her leadership, ANBO moved powers from its chapters to its headquarters: its board was dissolved and Den Haan was given a new title () in July 2013. Simultaneously, a supervisory board and a members council, whose chair was chosen by Den Haan, were formed. Members of the management of the Overijssel division who had criticized those reforms were expelled. According to Den Haan, the reason was that they were unable to explain the division's finances, but a judge determined three removals were unjust. When the organizational structure of the FNV was reformed in 2013 after internal struggles, ANBO ended its membership. Den Haan stated that the largest subsidiaries would keep their disproportional influence and that she wanted subsidiaries to have more say in issues in their respective areas of specialty.