Arnhem Nijmegen's Sjors van Duren awarded 'Civil Servant of the Year'

29-years’ old Sjors van Duren from Nijmegen has been elected Best Civil Servant of the Year 2014. The mobility consultant at the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region was elected winner by the professional jury of PM Public Mission chaired by Jacques Wallage from the 100 best civil servants of The Netherlands. ‘A young enterprising civil servant, who believes in an idea and knows how to realize that idea,’ according to the jury report. ‘A out-of-the-box thinker with an unstoppable amount of energy’.

Van Duren owes his title to his commitment to the cycling policy in the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region. In particular, his contribution to the realization of the cycling tunnel under the A15 highway is mentioned. Sjors van Duren is a pioneer in the realization of fast cycling routes in the region. In addition, he is the pioneer of the initiative to have the world conference Velo-city in the region Arnhem Nijmegen in 2017. In December it will be published whether the City Region will be allowed to organize this conference with approximately 1,500 international participants.

Ambassador

Particularly, his ability to communicate his initiatives which are born from enthusiasm in a way that they can be executed without any unnecessary and time-consuming bureaucracy, has pushed him towards the first place in the Top 100.

In the nomination Sjors van Duren is described as ‘a young puppy’, who is not afraid to walk unpaved roads successfully. As mobility consultant at the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region he has proven himself to be an international ambassador for the cycling policy in The Netherlands. At conferences in Austria, Australia, Sri Lanka and Sweden he emphasized the importance of the bicycle as a solution to mobility issues, but also the link between cycling and health: more cyclists, less obesity.

Election

Each year the election for ‘Best Civil Servant of the Year’ is an initiative of PM Public Mission, a platform for top civil servants who work for the government, provinces, municipalities, water boards and in the execution. Users of the platform (magazines, specials, website, newsletters, social media) composed a gross list Top 100, from which the professional jury selected 10 nominees. In the end, Sjors van Duren was in the top 3 of all seven jury members and therefore became number 1 of the list.