Central Office for the Fight against counterfeits, Belgian Federal Police , BE

Chris joined the Belgian police in 1982. He was a professor in the Royal School of the Gendarmerie till 1990. He worked in an IT project and was also involved in several other projects when the police landscape in Belgium was reshaped in 2001.

In 2002 he created the national IP Crime Unit in the Federal Police. First as a one man company and after wards he could expand the unit to a unit, staffed with 5 persons.. In the meanwhile Chris was included in several EU Taiex training programs on IP Crime and EU IP Twinning projects in Poland, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Algeria, Moldova …

He applied for the post of Project Manager of Europol’s IP Crime Unit and started at Europol end of 2010. In 2014 Chris was appointed Cluster Manager Counterfeiting, managing both FP COPY (IP Crime Unit) and FP SOYA, Europol’s Euro Counterfeiting Unit.

In 2015 Chris’s IP Crime team was awarded the ACG award in Paris.

In July 2016, Mr Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol inaugurated the IPC³ (Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition), Europol’s new IP Crime Unit in the presence of Mr Campinos, executive Director of EU IPO and Mr Danny Marti, the US IPR Coordinator of the White House.
Chris was Head of IPC³ and during his mandate, the team has been expanded to 18 colleagues from various EU MS’s. His former Unit is coordinating high level IP Operations like Operation OPSON (fake food and beverages), Operation Silver Axe (on fake and illicit pesticides) and Operation IOS (on internet related IP Crime).

Chris ended his contract as Head of IPC3 at Europol end of November 2019 and worked for three years in the Cabinet of the Director General of the Belgian Federal Judicial Police on International Police Cooperation.

Since February 2023 he became Head of the Central Office for the Fight against Counterfeits.

Chris is married, has two sons and three grandchildren.