Curriculum Vitae
Admiral Willy HERTELEER was born in Assenede near
Ghent on 1 October 1941. He joined the Brussels Royal
Cadet School in 1957 and the Merchant Navy Academy
in 1960, with commission in the Belgian Navy following
in 1962.
From 1963 to 1968, Ensign W. Herteleer served on several mine-sweepers and on the
supply/command ship Godetia. He specialised in mine warfare in 1969/1970 and subsequently
served as Mine countermeasures Staff Officer in the Belgian Navy's Operational Command
from 1970 to 1972.
Lieutenant W. Herteleer attended the Belgian Staff College in Brussels and the Ecole
Supérieure de Guerre Navale in Paris, between 1972 and 1974. In 1975 he commanded a
Coastal Minesweeper and in 1978 an Ocean Minesweeper/Hunter each time in the Standing
Naval Force Channel. In between he was instructor in the Belgian-Dutch Mine warfare School
in Ostend.
From 1979 through 1982 Lieutenant Commander W. Herteleer worked under an appointment
to the Planning Section of the Belgian Naval Staff and was member of NATO's Naval Board
of the Military Agency of Standardisation. For the next two years 1984 and 1985, he was first
second in Command and then the Commanding Officer of the frigate Westdiep.
In the first half of 1986 he is Assistant Chief of Staff Operations in the Naval Operations
Command and through September 1987, Chief of Staff of the same Command. During this
period, he was involved in the Herald of Free Enterprise rescue operations and in the start of
the operations of the first Gulf war.
Captain W. Herteleer commanded the Belgian-Dutch Mine Warfare School in Ostend from
September 1987 to June 1989. During that time, he introduced the Mine countermeasures
operational sea-training and the mine warfare simulator specifications. In late 1989 he served
in the Belgian Naval Staff in Brussels on its audit team and in the first half of 1990 as Staff
Officer responsible for the operations.
He is appointed Commander Naval Operations, in June 1990. As such he is responsible for the
Belgian ships in the second Gulf war to free Kuwait in 1990 and 1991. He was promoted
Rear-Admiral in March 1992.
In September 1992 he joined the General Staff Headquarters in Brussels, with his appointment
as Chief of Naval Staff on 1 January 1993.
Promoted to Vice Admiral, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff on the 1st October
1995, which is renamed into Chief of Defence on the 1st January 2002 with his promotion to
Admiral on the 14th January of the same year. In these functions he is responsible, for Belgium,
for operations in East-Slavonia (UNPROFOR and UNTAES), in Bosnia (UNPROFOR, IFOR,
SFOR), in Kosovo (AIR CAMPAIGN, SFOR) and in Central Africa (1996/1997 and 2001).
0n the 11th October 1999, he was promoted Aide to the King
Admiral W. Herteleer retired on January 1rst 2003 due to legal age limitation regulations.
Since then, he has been involved with Allied Command Transformation as Senior Concept
Developer for Consensus Decision Coherence and other relevant issues.
Beginning in 2005, he became President of the Royal Work IBIS, a home and school for 100
young boys ranging in age from 6 to 16 years who come from very difficult social
environments.
Since 2008 he is involved in EURODEFENSE-BELGIUM, part of an international
organization of now 13 European Nations promoting the European Security and Defence
concepts.
Admiral W. Herteleer is a widower; he has four children, twelve grandchildren and lives in
Ostend, Belgium.