Robert Simons is the vice mayor of Rotterdam, on behalf of the Leefbaar Rotterdam party. He is responsible for the port, economy, hospitality and governance (neighborhoods). Simons got to know Rotterdam as a merchant navy officer, a position in which he often visited the port of Rotterdam. He worked ashore, although still in the port, from 1995, and subsequently remained involved with shipping as the Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate’s head of maritime investigations.

Simons has held various management positions at the Human, Environment and Transport Inspectorate of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management since 2011. He has worked in, among others, the maritime, rail and aviation sectors.

Simons became a volunteer for Leefbaar Rotterdam in 2004, and served as municipal councilor for that party from 2006 to 2014 and from 2018 to 2022. He was party chairman from 2015 to 2017, and was vice mayor for urban development and integration in Rotterdam in 2017 and 2018. He was the leading candidate during the municipal elections on March 16, 2022.