Jacques Van Droogenbroek

Induction Year: 2015

Jacques Van Droogenbroek has been a respected leader throughout his career in the banknote industry, lasting more than 50 years.

After earning his university degree in civil engineering, he taught as an Assistant Professor in Mechanics and Thermodynamics at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He joined the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) in 1963, at the completion of his service as a military officer. Jacques held progressively more responsible positions at NBB, becoming Director of the Printing Works after only 12 years. In 1989, he was appointed Treasurer, with responsibility for the Chief Cashier’s Department, the Security Department, and NBB’s 22 offices.

Jacques was an international trailblazer, leading important collaborative work by central banks. He began in 1977 as the Chairman of the Machinery Committee of the Banknote Printers Conference (BPC,) moving on to become Chairman of its Policy Committee Advisory Board. The BPC was an informal association of banknote printers in Europe, set up after the Second World War. The BPC became the model for the Pacific Rim and the African Banknote Printers Conferences. From 1983 through 1990, Jacques was the Chairman of the Intaglio Research Group, the first example of a worldwide group of central banks and government printers focused on banknotes, with members from approximately 20 countries, collaborating and funding a common budget devoted to research. It was the prototype for later collaborations like the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group and the Reprographic Research Center. Jacques served as the inaugural Chairman of the Working Group for the first series of Euro banknotes, from 1991-1992.

Jacques then joined SICPA Security Inks as Managing Director, moving on to become Chairman of the Advisory Board of SICPA Security Inks in 1997, and continuing to serve as a Member of the Advisory Board and Advisor from 2000 through 2002.

He later was associated with the International Confederation for Printing and Allied Industries (Intergraf) from 2003 to 2013, where he led the development of Intergraf’s ISO Certification schemes that aim at providing security printers with well-established criteria to help them to implement the most efficient and secure management system and to certify their compliance to the criteria through a precise auditing process.