Jacques Marie Joseph Hubert Ghislain van Ypersele de Strihou (born 5 December 1936), was the Principal Private Secretary to the King of the Belgians (1983–2013). When Albert II of Belgium succeeded his brother Baudouin I of Belgium, he kept his private secretary, so Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou has served two kings. Together with Jan Willems, Marshal of the Royal Household, he represents the King at the board of the King Baudouin Foundation. Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou is a French-speaking Christian Democrat (CDH, previously known as PSC). He is a son of Henry van Ypersele, an engineer who worked for the business group of the late Baron Empain and Martha Bansa de Kinder. Henry van Ypersele was the brother of Baron Adelin van Ypersele de Strihou and himself administrator of Royale Belge, the predecessor of Axa. Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou is married to Brigitte de Bus de Warnaffe and together they have four daughters: Marie-Noëlle, Vinciane, Christina and Nathalie. His daughter, Nathalie van Ypersele de Strihou, is a partner of the Belgian PR consultancy agency akkanto. Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou is nicknamed "Van Yp" in Belgium's political and media circles. Education Jacques van Ypersele went to school at the Jesuit college Saint-Michel of Brussels. He studied literature at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) in Namur and in addition he studied law and economy at the Catholic University of Louvain. During his studies, he was a member of the Olivaint Conference of Belgium. He was an assistant at Lovanium University of Léopoldville in Congo for some months, after which he went to Yale University, on a NATO-scholarship, where he obtained a PhD in economics under Richard Cooper. Career In Washington, D.C., he met professor Robert Triffin, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Robert Triffin, his mentor, provided him with a job at the IMF in Washington, D.C., and later in 1969 at Jakarta (Indonesia). In Washington, D.C., at the IMF, he shared a room, as a junior economist, with Wim Duisenberg, the later President of the European Central Bank. Due to his talent, he acquired international fame in a short time. State leaders, such as the German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and the French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing praised his expertise on economics and finance. In the early 1970s he returned to Belgium, where he joined the Empain Group, and became Vice-President of Electrorail. In 1972,