Major General Koen Gijsbers

Former Director General, NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA)

Koen Gijsbers brings over 40 years of experience spanning NATO, European defence and the Netherlands government. He served as Director General (General Manager) of the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), NATO's digital and cyber agency, leading the optimisation of the Alliance's IT and cyber capability and services.

Earlier in his career, as Chief Information Officer of the Netherlands Ministry of Defence and in concept development at NATO's Allied Command Transformation in the United States, he drove the transformation of military communications toward network-centric operations and the digitisation of allied forces.

A Major General (ret.), Koen's military career included command of the Netherlands' 11 Air Assault Brigade and operational deployments, among them leading the humanitarian relief effort in southern Kosovo in 1999 and supporting the digital capability of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

After his military and NATO career, he served as a board member or advisor to several defence, cyber and critical-infrastructure organisations, including the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, and several companies, and has advised the Netherlands central and local government son national resilience and critical-infrastructure protection. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the Royal Military Academy in Breda and a Master's degree in Military Art and Science from the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.