Lieutenant-General A.G.D. Van Osch

Born in 1955, Lieutenant-General Ton Van Osch joined the Royal Netherlands Military Academy in 1974 and was commissioned into the Artillery in 1978. After various appointments, including battery command, he attended Staff Course in 1986-87 and subsequently served as a long term planner on the Army Staff. He then attended the US Army Command and General Staff College, followed by a tour as Lt Col and lecturer in strategy at the NL National Defense College, during which he also studied at Leiden University for a Masters degree in Public Administration.

Command of 41 Field Arty Bn in Germany, from 1993-95, was followed by a planning post with the Defense Staff and the appointment as Head of Operational Policy and Training on the Army Staff. In 1999 Van Osch became Chief Ops (Land) at HQ SFOR and also acted as Chief of the Combined Joint Ops Center during this period.
Subsequently, as Head of Policy Development for the Directorate of Personnel and Organization, he was responsible for personnel improvements within the Army.

Directly after 9/11 he was sent to Tampa as an operational planner in the Coalition Co-ordination Center of US Central Command. After this he completed the NL Higher Command and Staff Course in May 2002.

In June 2002 Van Osch was promoted Brigadier-General and took over the post of Deputy Chief of Defense Staff Operations in the Netherlands MOD. March 2003 he moved on within the MOD to the post of Deputy Chief of Defense Staff for International Planning and Co-operation. In addition in November 2003 he became the project manager for the reorganization of the Defense Staff including the co-ordination of the dismantling of the services' headquarters. 

In December 2004 Van Osch took over as Commandant of the Royal Military Academy. When he took over he was simultaneously appointed the first Commandant of the newly-formed Netherlands Higher Defence College, which is the administrative merger of the Royal Military Academy, the Royal Naval Institute and the Netherlands Defence College.  

As of 15 June 2007, he will be the Permanent Military Representative to NATO and the EU Military Committee in Brussels.

Lieutenant-General Van Osch is married and has two daughters.