Born : January 1942
Deceased : 10 december 2020

Biography Roland D’Ieteren

Roland D’Ieteren was born in 1942.  Roland D’ieteren spent his entire life among cars. The family business dates from 1805 when Jean-Joseph D’Ieteren starts the work of wheelwright and manufacturer of wheels in Brussels..  The company was converted into a company that builded bodies for different car manufacturers. In 1948, Pierre D’Ieteren, Rolands father, agreed with Volkswagen to start importing cars in Belgium. In 1950, Pierre added Porsche to the portfolio. One of the exploits of Pierre D’Ieteren to prove the reliability of the Volkswagen Beetle was a trip to Congo.  Together with some friends, he cruised about 25.000 kilometres on unpaved roads throughout the country. The exploits were written down in the book ‘Images du souvenir, 25 000 kilomètres de pistes africaines’, published in 1951. With a family history like this,  you should not be surprised that  little Rolands  heart went out to cars.

Studies

Roland D’Ieteren spent his youth in Brussels. As a child, Roland attended the same boarding as Ferdinand Piech, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. No surprise the 2 young men, both born in a family with a strong connection to cars, shared stories and ultimately became close friends.  Later even the both families became friends, and they spent holiday time togehter. It was during his visits to the Piëch family that Roland D’Ieteren learned the German language.  Later, D’Ieteren attended the Solvay Brussels Economic Management School. Next step in the education was his MBA at Insead.

Career

In 1972, Roland D’Ieteren, becomes associate director of the company. Just a few years later, D’Ieteren becomes the head of the D’Ieteren group after the fatal accident of father Pierre in January 1975. Roland D’Ieteren played a paramount role in the development of D’Ieteren as Belgium’s leading car importer.  He developed those activities into a gigantic car empire. The D’Ieteren Auto branch currently distributes all makes of the VW group, such as VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. This represents one fifth of Belgian car sales. Next to that, the D’Ieteren has been active for over approximately 50 years in car rentals.

D’Ieteren owned the VW factory in Vorst (Belgium) until the beginning of the 70s. In 2006, the factory was threatened with closure. D’Ieteren did not hesitate to start lobbying with his old friend Ferdinand Piech. He set up a meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Piech to save the factory. That same year, Roland D’Ieteren was awarded with the noble title of ‘Baron’ . In 2017, Roland D’Ieteren retired. His son Nicolas D’Ieteren became the new Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Passion for cars

Roland D’Ieteren had an extremely strong passion for cars. Despite his successes, he always remained very modest. He loved talking with the employees, and the main subject was cars.  As a car passionate, he had a nose for the good cars. The final result is a collection that is housed in the D’Ieteren Gallery. With his collection, Roland D’Ieteren took 76th place in the list of the 100 best car collections in the world (source : The Key 2019) . Next to his own collection, he had a strong connection with the Autoworld Museum in Brussels, and helped them whenever he could. Some of the cars in the permanent exhibition in the museum belong to the private collection, and every once and a while he loaned cars for special exhibitions like ‘the 70 years Porsche exhibition at the Auto World Museum‘.   Furthermore, he enjoyed driving the cars and he was a regular guest at the Zoute Rally in one of his exclusive classc cars. 

Roland D’Ieteren died December 10 2020 after a 7 week struggle with Corona. 

Source : D’Ieteren 
Pictures courtesy Belga and Vintage Race Photography