Major General Wim Denolf joined the Belgian Army in 1988. After graduating from the Royal Military Academy in Brussels with a Master’s in Social and Military Sciences, he joined the 3rd Parachute Battalion, serving from 1994 to 2000 as both a rifle platoon
commander and mortar platoon commander.
From 2000 to 2003, Captain Denolf served as the Belgian national officer at the International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School (ILRRPS) in Germany. During this time, he also commanded the school’s patrol division and later the reconnaissance
division.
In 2003, he became Deputy Operations Officer of the Belgian Para-Commando Brigade.
After successfully completing the Senior Officer Candidate Course in 2004, he joined the Operations and Training Department at the Belgian Defense Headquarters inBrussels, where he focused on special operations planning.
In 2005, Major Denolf was appointed Head of Operations and Training for the Special Forces Group. In 2009, he became deputy commander, and also served as chief of staff.
During this period, he deployed on national missions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Haiti, and Senegal, as well as twice to Chad and the Central African Republic as part of the EUFOR TCHAD/RCA mission. In the latter mission, he also served as a Special Operations Advisor to Commander EUFOR in Paris.
In 2012, Major Denolf graduated from the Netherlands Senior Command and Staff College in The Hague, earning a Postgraduate Master’s Degree in Management and Strategic Studies.
He then returned to the Belgian Defense Headquarters in Brussels as a planner for special operations, embassy security detachments, and non-combatant evacuation operations. In late 2013, he was deployed to Afghanistan for over six months as a
Special Operations Planner for NATO’s Special Operations Component Command – Afghanistan (NSOCC-A), for which he was awarded the U.S. Joint Commendation Medal.
On 3 September 2014, he assumed command of the Belgian Special Forces Group. Under his leadership, the unit conducted numerous national and international operations. He was deployed twice to Iraq as a task force commander, where he received the U.S. Army Commendation Medal. He was also responsible for developing doctrine in the field of special operations.
In early 2017, Lieutenant Colonel Denolf joined the Belgian Military Intelligence and Security Service. At the end of 2019, he was deployed to Mali for eight months as part of the UN MINUSMA mission.
From late 2020 to June 2021, he attended the Leadership and International Security course at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
In June 2021, Colonel Denolf became Deputy Commander of the Special Operations Regiment. On 24 July 2023, he was appointed Director of the Special Operations Command (SOCOM), where he served as Special Operations Advisor to the Chief of
Defense and his Staff. In this role, he oversaw the planning and monitoring of special operations, the development of international and interdepartmental relations for the special forces, and the formulation of strategy and doctrine in the domain of special
operations.
In September 2025, Wim Denolf was promoted to Major General and joined EUROCORPS as Deputy Commander.
Major General Denolf is married and has a daughter.
