[1] He attended the Université catholique de Louvain and graduated in 1903 with a degree in civil engineering and a license in commercial and consular sciences.

Van Bree's primary responsibility was with Forminière, a large and diversified enterprise involved in forestry, mining, agriculture, industry, commerce and finance, with prospecting rights over one third of the Congo Free State.

Van Bree organized and led several prospecting expeditions in the districts of Kasai, Maniema, Uele, Lac Léopold II, Bas-Congo and Kwango.

He was praised for his services by the future American president Herbert Hoover, who had established the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) to provide food to the CNSA.

Van Bree cooperated with Ernest Oppenheimer of South Africa, and in 1927 struck an agreement for a world organization for diamond sales.

Van Bree pioneered establishment of medical facilities, maternity wards, child care and schools for the families of Forminière workers.

[2] Outside the Société Générale group he was president of the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Congo supérieur aux Grands Lacs africains (CFL), the Compagnie Minière des Grands-Lacs (MGL), the Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne (Sabena) and a director of many other enterprises in Belgium, the Congo and elsewhere.

[2] When Belgium was invaded in May 1940 during World War II (1939–1945) van Bree left for the Congo, where he took responsibility for the companies of the Société Générale de Belgique.

[7] Believing that a large volume of diamonds were being smuggled out of the colony, American intelligence officials convinced British agents to inspect the security of the mines.

The officer tasked with overseeing the inspection teams concluded that proper security measures were lacking and that Forminière and Société minière du Bécéka personnel fostered a "sinister atmosphere" during the tours.

American and British agents ultimately uncovered a wide smuggling network that brought diamonds out of the Congo and to German-occupied Europe by air and sea.

After the end of the war the Belgian government demanded that Germany pay $25 million owed to the Société Générale for 576,676 carats of diamonds.

[1] After World War II van Bree gradually withdrew from involvement in business and became more interested in educational and scientific institutions.

[1] In the 1920s van Bree had bought land in the Sainte Barbe district of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the extreme south of France where he had three very well designed and comfortable neo-Basque villas built by the architect André Pavlovsky.

[10] Van Bree did much to help the development of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, including construction of Basque motels, and was named an honorary citizen of the town.