Dirk Poot

Dirk Poot (born 1968) is a Dutch programmer and politician who is a former lijsttrekker and spokesperson for the board of the Pirate Party of the Netherlands. Poot was the lijsttrekker of the Dutch Pirate Party for the Dutch parliamentary elections in 2012^[2][3][4] and fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections.^[2]

Dirk Poot
Lijsttrekker and spokesperson, Dutch Pirate Party
In office 2012–2016
Preceded by	Samir Allioui
Succeeded by	Ancilla van de Leest
Personal details
Born	1968 (age 56–57) Utrecht,[1] Netherlands
Political party	Pirate Party of the Netherlands
Residence(s)	Breda, Netherlands
Occupation	Programmer

Personal life

Poot studied business administration in Breukelen and medicine in Sint Eustatius.^[3][5]

He currently resides close to Breda in the Netherlands.^[2]

Professional work

Poot is a self-employed computer programmer, focusing on medical and education software.^[2][3][5][6] He has previously worked as a physician.^[3]

Political activities

When he was younger, Poot was a member of the Jongerenorganisatie Vrijheid en Democratie (JOVD), the youth organization of the main Dutch conservative party, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).^[2]

He has been blogging about democracy, privacy, and medical issues since 2005.^[2] He has written about collection and storage of sensitive information in government databases, in particular the Electronic Patient Record (EPR).^[3]

Dutch Pirate Party

Poot has been active with the Pirate Party since late 2009. He joined the party after discovering it through IRC while blogging about Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.^[2]

He was fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections.^[2] Since 2011, he has been a member of the board of the Dutch Pirate Party, and the board's spokesperson since December 2011.^[2][3][4] In the 2012 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, he was the first candidate of the Dutch Pirate Party.^[2][3][6]