Werner VERHEYEN was born on the 17th of April 1961 in Duffel, province of Antwerp, Belgium. After his secondary school at the Saint-Gummarus College in Lier he started his military career in 1983 as a temporary officer in the 2nd Artillery Battalion in Luedenscheid, Germany. In this unit he executed the functions of Field Artillery Battery Topographical Officer, 2nd in Command of a Field Artillery Battery and consequently Battalion Topographical Officer. In 1986 he moved with his unit from Germany to Helchteren, Belgium.After his graduation to career officer in 1989 he joined the 17th Artillery Battalion in Altenrath, Germany, where he was Battery Commander during 4 years. In 1993 he was posted at the Artillery School in Brasschaat as an instructor for officers’ courses.Following the Staff Course in 1998 at the Royal Higher Defense College he was appointed as Deputy Intelligence and Security Officer and consequently as chief of this section at the Headquarters of the 1st Brigade in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. He served in this Brigade Headquarters for 6 years.After a short period as 2nd in Command of the 2nd Artillery Battalion in Helchteren/Brasschaat, he was posted at the Rapid Reaction Corps France in Lille, where he was appointed Chief Targeting within the Joint Fires, Influence and Targeting Branch. He stayed in Lille for 5 years.In 2010 he was posted at SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe), as Staff Officer dealing with NATO Security Policy. During his time at SHAPE he was project officer for TACTIC, a multipurpose acces card system, he acted frequently as invited teacher at the NATO SCHOOL OBERAMMERGAU.Major VERHEYEN participated in 3 peace-missions in the Balkans: in Croatia as an ECMM (European Commnunity Monitoring Mission) monitor in Osijek (1995), in Bosnia-Herzegovina as liaison officer with the Entity Armed Forces (1998) and in Kosovo as Deputy G2 Intelligence Production in the Headquarters Multinational Brigade North (2001).Last deployment was from September 2013 till March 2014 to ISAF Afghanistan as the Information Operations Planning Officer within the Directorate Operational Communication and Civilian Outreach (OPCCO) at the Headquarters Regional Command North in Mazar - e- Sharif.His last and final military assignment was at the Belgian Defense Staff in Brussels where he was working as Chief Operations Centre within the Operations and Training Directorate.