A recent vote by Crows players settled on a five-man leadership group, and 24-year-old van Berlo's rise to the captaincy was confirmed on Tuesday by the club's coaches, management and board.
Scott Stevens, Ben Rutten, Michael Doughty and Scott Thompson complete the leadership group for 2011.
"It's a great honour to captain this club," van Berlo said.
"I'm excited about leading the group into a new era. I'm also pleased to be involved with this leadership group and firmly believe that together we can drive the group towards success. We can't wait for the season to start."
Van Berlo is the sixth captain in the Crows' 20-year history, following Chris McDermott, Tony McGuinness, Mark Ricciuto and Simon Goodwin, who retired at the end of last season.
He has played 116 AFL matches since being drafted six years ago from West Perth, with pick 24 at the NAB AFL Draft.
The West Australian has been touted as a future captain of the club for several years and coach Neil Craig said van Berlo's leadership qualities were evident when the pair first met at the NAB AFL Draft Camp in Canberra six years ago.
"I remember interviewing Nathan in Canberra," Craig said. "We spoke to Nathan and his close mate [Mark] LeCras and both of those young guys clearly stood out to us with the quality of their interview and the values they were speaking about.
"It was clear that Nathan had the attributes to grow in that area [leadership] if he wished to do so and Nathan has demonstrated that desire to develop his leadership since day one.
"With people leaving our football club the time has now arrived for Nathan to accept a very responsible position in our football club. It's a great credit to him and I think he'll grow immensely on top of what we've already seen."
Thompson, 27, is the only new member of the leadership group, while Brad Symes and ruckman Ivan Maric have been left out of last year's seven-man group.
