Ir. Jacques Rosiers

President

Jacques ROSIERS, Rear admiral (Ret), Honorary Aide-de-camp to the King, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Belgian Marine Society. In 1966, at the age of 17, he entered the Royal Military Academy (RMA) with the 121st Polytechnic division. He graduated as mechanical engineer and deck officer at the end of 1971. He has a total of 10 years’ service at sea. As a young officer, he sailed on board of all types of warships of the Navy. Later, he was commanding officer of all these types as well. From 1973 onwards, he took part with these Belgian ships in several deployments of the NATO’s integrated naval forces and the Belgian-Dutch squadron. Its specialized naval training includes missile-artillery officer and mine warfare.

He has received operational and technical training in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. His post-graduate training includes the Command & Staff course (GS) obtained in Canada (Toronto) and Belgium (Brussels), as well as the Senior course at the NATO Defense College (Rome). As a junior or senior officer, he has also held technical and training staff positions ashore, both in Belgium and the Netherlands. Flag Officer in 1998, he was successively appointed Commanding Officer of the Naval Operational Command (Zeebrugge) and Deputy Admiral BENELUX (Den Helder), then Head of the Plans & Policy Staff Division at NATO HQ in Northwood (UK) and subsequently Head of the Strategy Department at the Belgian Defence Staff, as well as General Director for Belgian Defence Policy (Policy Director) and Belgian National Director for Armaments. In addition, he served for 12 years as King Baudouin’s Equerry and King Albert II’s Aide-de-camp, as well as the first full-time Head of the Household of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant (1992 – 1996).

Jacques ROSIERS is married (1971) to Anne VANDER AUWERA, has 3 children and 8 grandchildren, including Geoffroy, who joined the RMA in 2021 – the 4th generation of officers. Retired since 2010, he is president and active member of various associations, including SERVIOBelgium (the national cupola of patriotic associations), the Euro-Atlantic Association of Belgium and Eurodefense Belgium. He is a founding member of the Editorial Board of the bilingual strategic magazine Belgisch Militair Tijdschrift – Revue militaire belge, published by the Royal Higher Institute for Defence (RHID), where he is a Senior Fellow. He has published articles and books and he is a regular speaker. He loves history, traveling and family life.