Education
In 1973 Tichelaar finished his havo and enrolled at the Academy for Pedagogy in Heerenveen.
In 1973 Tichelaar finished his havo and enrolled at the Academy for Pedagogy in Heerenveen.
Since 1 May 2009 he has been the Queen"s Commissioner (since 30 April 2013 named King"s Commissioner) of the province of Drenthe. Previously he was an Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2009 and Parliamentary group leader from 2007 to 2008. In 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in business administration from Kingston University.
He focused on education and agriculture.
He was also chair of the committee for finance. During the 2006–2007 Dutch cabinet formation, Tichelaar was secondant of Wouter Bos during the confidential negotiations.
He was unexpectedly chosen over MPs like Nebahat Albayrak, the Labour Party"s second candidate on the list, because of his experience with negotiations from his union years.
Before he entered politics, Tichelaar was vice-director of a grammar school, general secretary of the education labour union ABOP and chair of its successor AOB, which is affiliated with the FNV, the major Dutch federation of labour unions. Tichelaar had also spent years talking with Capital Development Authority leader Maxime Verhagen about why the 2003 information talks between the two parties had failed, and understood the Capital Development Authority best among MPs.
He is a member of the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid). Since the 2002 election he was a member of the House of Representatives.