Georges
HEEREN was born in Soest, Germany, in 1960. In 1978, after completing
his secondary education in the classics at the Royal Cadets School, he
joined the Belgian Royal Military Academy and graduated as an
electronics engineer in 1983. Upon completion of his naval education in
1984 he served on several minesweepers and hunters as operations officer
and executive officer before qualifying as Gunnery and Missiles Officer
at the Naval Warfare School in St. Mandrier (France).
Until 1990 he served as principal warfare officer
(PWO – AWW) on board several E-71 frigates and as operations officer on
board the frigate WANDELAAR, amongst others, during its deployment with
the Standing Naval Force Atlantic.
He took up the position of system engineer for fire
control software at the Centre for Weapon and Sensor Automation in Den
Helder (the Netherlands) for four years and was primarily responsible for
the software changes related to the introduction of new missiles on
board the ships of the WM25 community.
In 1995 Georges returned to sea as commanding officer
of the tripartite minehunter PRIMULA and served with her in a routine
deployment of the Standing Naval Force Channel, after which he took
command of the Nautical School in Bruges.
On promotion to Commander he received his first
appointment to Brussels as project officer at the Manpower Section of
the Personal Branch of the Belgian Joint Staff. He participated in
several project groups concerning the defence reorganization and was
chairman of the subcommittee Operations of the working group Vision
2015.
In 2001 he assumed command of the frigate WANDELAAR
and after successfully completing the first full sea trials of the
capability upgrade program, his ship deployed to the West Atlantic where
she won the Top Gun trophy during her participation in the JTFEX.
He returned to Brussels in 2003 as head of the
Department Maritime Operations and lecturer at the Royal Defence
College. On promotion to Captain he joined the Permanent Representation
of Belgium at the North Atlantic Council as deputy defence counsellor
assuming the follow up of NATO operations and partnerships as well as
force planning. He left this appointment early to take up the post of
Chief of Staff of the naval component. After staff reorganisation of the
naval component, a project he led, he was appointed Director Policy
Support, responsible for the long term planning and for international
relations.
In early 2010 he rejoined the Belgian Joint Staff as
Chief of Operations Planning Division. On promotion to Commodore he took
up position at the Allied Maritime Command Northwood. He is a graduate
of the Royal Defence College and the NATO Defence College, married to
Kaatje STEEL and blessed with one daughter and three sons, all spending
his money in their attempts to graduate university.
Georges is a passionate comic reader, he listens to
classical music and enjoys spending time on his brother in law's sailing
yacht, with which he crossed the Atlantic.