Your consultant - trainer

Professional life

In 1998 I started working as a freelance network administrator, database programmer and IT trainer. Over time, my work developed a social component that could not be overlooked. Soon I was training visually impaired people on the computer.

Occasionally I got involved in unusual projects, such as training an entire EDP support department of a corporation. The training of blind programmers or the development of a sophisticated business application for a personnel service provider abroad.

In the process, the focus gradually shifted towards IT security and compliance. I eventually found myself designing management systems for information security. This was followed by official appointment as a data protection officer in 2011, qualification as an ISO27001 lead auditor in 2013, further training as a BSI IT-Grundschutz expert in 2017 and certification as an external data protection officer in 2019.
See also:
The IT story behind Van Gestel EDV (on the home page)..

Private life

Born in 1966 and raised in a Flemish city near the coast, I met my German wife during a trip to South America. She, our daughters, a dog and a family of cats connect me with Germany and with life in the countryside.

I ended up in an old half-timbered house with beamed ceilings, sloping walls and a wood-burning stove in the Hessian hinterland in the Marburg region. Here we make music with grand piano, accordion or guitar. This is where I learned to love red kites and woodpeckers, and at night I am always drawn to the rural starry sky with a thick jacket and telescope, or to the forest to volunteer in bat monitoring in the region.

Fred Van Gestel