Cees J.P.M.de Bont was born in 1964 in Raamsdonk, located in the south of the Netherlands. For his academic education in consumer - and organisational psychology he was trained at the University of Tilburg and at Universidad La Catolica in Lima (Peru). He obtained his MSc degree in 1987. After this, he was a PhD candidate at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. Cees de Bont defended his thesis, titled Consumer Evaluations of Early Product-Concepts, in 1992.

After the PhD project, he first fulfilled his military obligations at the Royal Military Academy and then worked as assistant professor of consumer psychology at the University of Tilburg. In this period, Cees de Bont acted as a consultant to Philips Design in Eindhoven. This organisation convinced him to come and build a new team in Philips Design, called: Human Behaviour Research. This team was involved in social trend forecasting, ethnographic studies, creative methods, etc. After about three years, Cees de Bont was transferred from Philips Design to Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care to become globally responsible for Market intelligence and Strategy. All together he stayed more than ten years with Philips. In this period (in 2002), he was appointed as professor of Marketing at the faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In 2005 Cees de Bont returned to the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering in Delft to become the dean. At the Delft University of Technology Cees de Bont is heading the Delft Design and Engineering Initiative. He also chairs D-Incert, a nationwide platform for electric mobility.

Cees de Bont is married and has three children (two boys and a girl).