Jan Mulder has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dutch liberal party "VVD" since 1994 and is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in Parliament.

He was born on 3 October 1943 in Diever in the Netherlands and still lives there. He graduated as an agricultural engineer from Wageningen University and has subsequently worked as an agricultural specialist in developing countries for the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission.

Jan Mulder is vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Budget Committee and spokesman for ALDE on the Budget Control Committee. He is a substitute member of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development and was a parliamentary rapporteur for the 2004 EU budget. Since 1999, he has been chairman of LUFPIG, the Land Use & Food Policy InterGroup in the European Parliament.

Since July 2004 Jan Mulder has been a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia. In that capacity, he has visited Nepal with members of the Committee for Development in the European Parliament. The mission served to support democratic development in Nepal.