Gert-Jan "GJ" de Vreede was born Gerardus Johannes de Vreede in Delft, a beautiful historical town south of Amsterdam. He grew up in Rijswijk where his parents still live. He attended Delft University of Technology and received an MSc (cum laude) in Computer Science (1991) with a specialization in Information Systems and a PhD in Systems Engineering (1995). He was offered a faculty position at Delft and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. During this time he founded the Group Support Systems research program and became chair of the Systems Engineering department. In 2002, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, after accepting a full professorship at the Department of Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At UNO, he founded the Center for Collaboration Science which spans all six of the university's colleges. His current position is the Frederic W. Kayser Chair in Information Systems and Managing Director of the Center for Collaboration Science.
Gert-Jan lives in Waterloo, a small town close to Omaha, in a beautiful lakeside neighborhood with his wife Triparna, four children, Peter, Shiraz, Neepa, and Keya and two dogs. When he is not working, he likes to spend time with his family by the lake. His hobbies include tracking his sports car, ice-skating, water-skiing, cooking, wine tasting, and watching movies.