Jan-Baptist Verheeke is the Secretary General of the Flemish Environment Council, Minaraad. In 1989, Janstarted his professional career as a lobbyist for a Flemish nature protection organization. In 1991, the Flemish advisory Council Minaraad (Environmental and Nature Council) was created, and in 1992, Jan became acting director of the secretariat. After spending some years as personal advisor on nature policy to the then Flemish environment minister (2004-2009), Jan returned to the Minaraad as general secretary. One of the first things Jan did when he started at the Minaraad, was to organize a conference of/for similar councils within Europe, in order to see how they were structuring their activities, and also to explore what advisory processes on environmental policy would be desirable at the European level. This conference was the seminal event for what would become the EEAC-network. Thereafter, Jan have been board member of the EEAC before (2010-2012). In recent years, he acted as member of the audit committee and chair of the EEAC WG Water/Ecosystems. Since mid-seventies, Jan was active in the Flemish environmental movement. He studied Law (masters’ degree 1987) and Philosophy (bachelor 1985), both at the University of Ghent.
