Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School Fellows

Caroline Craenhals studied commercial engineering at the VUB. Today she is the CEO of Belgian Scrap Terminal, a recycling company that responsibly reclaims discarded materials. 

She will share her professional expertise in the field of sustainability with the VUB by facilitating data for circular research through her network. She will also give guest lectures on sustainability, support internships and supervise master’s theses.  

Caroline Vrijens studied law in Namur and Leuven and continued her university career with training in international and European law at VUB and non-profit management at UGent. 

After her studies, she worked as an advisor to the Flemish government from 2006 to 2014 on the subject of youth aid. From 2014 to 2016, she monitored integral youth support, followed by a period at the NGO SOS Children’s Villages, where she was responsible for the most vulnerable youngsters. She also worked for several years as a governance policy officer on youth welfare at support agency Jeugdhulp. Since 2019, she has been the children’s rights commissioner, the Flemish advocate for the rights of young people established by the Flemish Parliament. 

Fatiha Saïdi is a committed Brussels feminist, politician and writer. She has been a councillor in Evere for more than a decade, as well as a senator and a member of the Brussels Parliament. She is trained in psychopedagogy and political science. 

Throughout her life and career, she has developed close ties with women’s organisations in the Maghreb. Based on these collaborations, she writes books about women facing forced marriage and women making activist Berber music 

Fatiha Saïdi’s deep political and social commitment to women’s rights and North-South relations is a constant source of inspiration for the VUB’s Fatima Mernissi research chair. Alongside other political actors and civil society organisations, she is an important partner who actively contributes to developing and delivering engaging, socially relevant lectures and public interventions. 

Miranda Ulens studied political and social sciences at VUB. Since 2018, she has been general secretary of the Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond (ABVV), Belgium’s socialist trade union. She is also president of the Flemish ABVV. 

Her objective with this Fellowship is to bring the labour movement and the university closer together. She will do this through guest lectures and dialogue with members of the research group BRISPO, the Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies, on crucial research topics affecting the trade union movement.  

Tony Mary graduated from VUB with a master’s in economic sciences and has gone on to become a captain of industry, including as managing director of public broadcaster VRT. He mentored the founders of VUB spin-off Collibra and has been instrumental in their success. Today, he coaches business leaders and is a director of several companies. 

As a Fellow, Tony Mary intends to contribute by supporting potential start-ups, through collaborating on business plans, seeking capital and putting together boards of directors. He will share his experience as a guest lecturer in courses on entrepreneurship and management and tap into his network. 

Aurianne Lambert is an alumna of Ghent University and graduated with a degree in applied economics in 2012. After studying at Sussex Downs College in the UK, she obtained a master in Environmental sciences and management at ULB. She has extensive experience as a sustainability consultant at EY and Deloitte and is now sustainability manager at Care Property Invest.

Bruno Humblet graduated as a commercial engineer from Solvay Business School in 1988 and did his military service in the air force. He worked for 17 years at Procter & Gamble in various financial functions and was heavily involved in the takeover of Gillette before moving to Bekaert. In 2022 he became CEO of Deceuninck, a Belgian window and door specialist.

Lotte Vermeir gained her degree in communication science at VUB in 2007. After a short period as a researcher at imec-SMIT-VUB, she became a researcher/advisor at broadcaster VRT’s research department, becoming deputy network manager for the channels Eén and Canvas in 2018. Today, she is responsible for content production in-house and with external suppliers" naar "today, as the network manager of Eén and Canvas: she is responsible for the brand strategy, scheduling, and the commissioning of all content, local and international, fiction and non-fiction of Eén and Canvas.

Ruth Devenyns studied economics at Ghent University and has an impressive track record in the biotechnology and life sciences industry. She was CFO of Ogeda until its acquisition by Astellas Pharma Inc in 2017. Before that, she worked in the financial sector for more than 20 years, in healthcare investment banking and venture capital. Since 2017 she has been CEO of Precirix, a VUB spin-off, and is an independent director of two companies listed on Euronext and director of FlandersBio, the umbrella organisation for the region’s biotech sector.

Steven Engels completed the advanced master programmes in European Integration and Social Law at VUB in 2009 and 2011 respectively. Prior to this, he obtained a PhD in Romance Languages and Literature from KU Leuven. He has worked at the European Commission since 2011 in a variety of roles. Since 2021, he coordinates economic, financial, social and cohesion policies as Deputy Head of Unit at the Secretariat-General. 

Jerry Aerts graduated in media and communications sciences at VUB in 1978. He built up an impressive career at the deSingel arts centre and raised its international profile as a leading European arts institution. He retired in November 2020 but remains active in the Flemish art and cultural world.

As an alumnus and an expert in art and cultural management, Aerts is already closely involved with the Department of Communication Sciences as a guest lecturer and speaker at graduation ceremonies. He is a leading figure in the world of art and culture, and plays an active role in various advisory and assessment bodies involved in Flanders’ cultural policy.

Johan Haelterman studied business administration at VUB between 1986 and 1988. He began his career in IT and IT audit, after which he became a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this role he advised listed companies and multinationals on risk management and corporate governance. The experience gave him the necessary expertise to start consultancy activities at Grant Thornton. Since 2012 he has been the CEO of NBN, the Belgian knowledge centre for business standards. Thanks to NBN, thousands of students and academics around the world have free access to ISO and European standards. That is the proof of NBN’s credo “Access to Knowledge”.Haelterman has a strong connection with his alma mater. He works with various academics from the faculty of Social Sciences & Solvay Business School. Under his leadership, NBN and VUB published a study about the effect of standards on the Belgian economy. As a Fellow, he will expand his guest lectures and wants to further encourage the link between standardisation and academia.

Aline Muylaert graduated from VUB in 2016 as a commercial engineer. During her studies she lost her heart to social enterprise, which inspired her to set up Citizenlab in 2015. Citizenlab is an e-democracy platform through which governments can involve citizens in their policymaking. Over 300 governments in more than 20 countries use the platform. This success brought her a place in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Law & Policy category.

She also sits on the steering group of Start.VUB, the VUB start-up incubator for student entrepreneurs. She inspires our students to be entrepreneurs and shares her motivation and expertise via guest lectures and master’s theses for enterprising students. The Social Entrepreneurship chair will continue to grow thanks to her engagement.

Elke Jorens graduated from VUB in 1990 as a commercial engineer. She started her career as a consultant at Accenture. Since 2006 she has worked at Microsoft, first as HR director for Belgium and Talent Acquisition Lead for West Europe. In 2013 she became Senior Director Head of Talent Acquisition Europe, the Middle East & Africa. In this role she is responsible for the recruitment of sales, service and engineering staff in more than 100 countries in the EMEA region. Her team recruits 6,000 people a year. 

With her rich career and experience at Microsoft, Jorens knows better than anyone how new technology changes the labour market. VUB is honoured that she will challenge and inspire students and professors with new insights about gender equality, innovation and cross-curricular learning and working. VUB’s humanistic values are still the values that she applies each day in carrying out her function and managing her teams.

An De Pauw is an alumna of the VUB where she studied at the Solvay Business School. She is an experienced manager and avid e-mobility expert. She is passionate about the market developments of mobility, charging solutions and electric cars. After her management positions at Tesla and D'Ieteren, she became CEO of Optimel, a software development company owned by three partners: Touring, AG Insurance & BNP Paribas Fortis.

André Céron graduated as an Industrial Engineer in Electromechanics (KIHA) and has a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from Vlerick Ghent. He started his career as a project engineer for heavy metallic constructions. He worked in the automotive industry for Volkswagen Group for more than 10 years. The past 20 years he has developed his career in supply chain at the Colruyt Group. For over ten years he has been director supply chain non-food, and actualy he is director logistics within the business operating unit Retail Partners Colruyt Group. André was also lecturer Supply Chain Management at the VUB.

Angela Mills Wade studied French and business administration at the French Institute in London. After graduating in 1977 she began a long career in the media and European public affairs. For 30 years she has been Director of the European Publishers Council, a high-level lobby group of presidents and CEOs of leading media companies in Europe. 

She defends the economic interests of the sector at policy level and focuses on furthering the sustainability of professional journalism. She also established Europe Analytica, an independent public affairs and communications consultancy with a special focus on the media and creative industries.

She already makes a large contribution to VUB and is a sounding board for research group SMIT’s Journalism, Participation and Trust unit. She is also a highly valued partner of the VUB event Difference Day, held on 3 May, Unesco’s World Press Freedom Day. Thanks to her, VUB can continue to expand its research in the field of media policy and economy.

Ann Caluwaerts started her career in 1990 with Lernout and Hauspie Speech Products. Since then, she has been working in several management roles at different companies. In 2011 she joined Telenet as senior vice president of media relations and public affairs. She has been appointed Executive Vice President People, Brand & Corporate Affairs since April 2020.

Ann Peuteman studied Germanic philology at Ghent University and afterwards went straight to work for the newspaper Het Volk. In the summer of 2000, she started working for Knack as a government reporter. Since 2012 she mainly writes about health care and education. Alongside her work for Knack, she can regularly be heard on the radio, as well as moderating live events. She’s also an expert on elderly care and wrote two books on the subject. From time to time she gives guest lectures and has given writing classes at VUB.

After graduating as Business Engineer at VUB in 1998, Anouk Lagae started to work for Unilever as Group Brand Manager for three years. In February 2001, she switched to The Coca Cola Company, where she held diverse positions in marketing and innovations, worldwide. In March 2012 she started at Duvel Moortgat to become Chief Marketing Officer. Now she is Chief Executive Officer at Accent Jobs. 

During her studies, Chantal Pattyn already started working for Radio 1. On Studio Brussel she was the host of the alternative music program “Update” and the cultural magazine Frituur Victoria. She also presented the TV news magazine De Zevende Dag. In 2000 she moved to Klara, the cultural radio station where she hosted the art program Alinea. In 2007, Chantal Pattyn was appointed as Director of Klara. Since 2013, she combines her job as director with hosting the art program Pompidou.

Danielle Jacobs graduated from the VUB in 1986 where she studied economics. After her education, she held various positions at a number of companies. She is now CEO of Beltug, the largest association of Belgian ICT professionals. Danielle Jacobs is also a member of the Belgian Telecommunications Advisory Committee and of the board of directors of DNS.be, a non-profit organization aimed to register domain names under the top level dot.be.

David Dehenauw is a VUB alumnus, graduating in 1993 as a civil chemical engineer. He started working as a weatherman with VTM, VRT and RTL-Tvi. Since November 2017 he has been in charge of daily operations at the weather stations in Uccle and Ostend as head of the weather forecasting department of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium. In 2013, he became a visiting professor of meteorology and climatology at Ghent University’s Faculty of Sciences.

Dehenauw can advise VUB on dangerous weather conditions often induced by climate change, one of the biggest challenges for the coming decades. In 2015, he contributed to VUB’s actions as part of WeAreParis, an initiative by a number of Belgian social, environmental and cultural organisations on the occasion of the Paris Climate Conference (COP21). Thanks to his Fellowship, this cooperation will be strengthened.

Dominique Vercraeye started as Project Leader and Senior Project Leader at Dimarso from 1987 till 1990. He became Research Director of Dimarso in 1991 and Director at N.I.D. (National Institute Data Collection) in 1993. Since 1994 he has been the Managing Director of TNS Belgium, a top player in the Belgian market research sector that offers qualitative and quantitative market research, ranging from data collection to insight consultancy for a.o. brands, media, social policy and political process, media planning and analysis. Honoured as Master Marketeer. President of FEBELMAR for more than 10 years and EFFIE jury for 17 years.

Emmy Oost studied language and literature at Ghent University and worked as a film producer for the renowned Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonpez. Her company 'Cassette for Timescapes' focuses on documentary and cross-media projects with a social or political dimension. She is also a co-founder of iDROPS, a platform for digital innovation in the cultural and creative industries and the social sector. In addition, she developed the app "Find Me in Kakuma" to reunite refugee children with their parents, with research center imec and director Lieven Corthouts, as part of their documentary The Invisible City: Kakuma, which won the Flemish Culture Prize in 2016.

After graduating from Ghent University as Master of Law, Frank Van Massenhove began his career as a labour schemes expert in the Flemish government. From 1995 to 1999 he was chief of staff to the mayor of Ghent and from 1999 to 2002 chief of staff to the Belgian minister of social affairs. He then became president of the Belgian federal social security service, and in 2007 he was awarded the title of Government Manager of the Year. Since 2019 he is advisor at Frank VM.

Gilles Samyn is a senior executive. He is specialized in buying and selling companies and company participations. After his military service, he joined the entrepreneur Albert Frère in 1974 with whom he spent a large part of his career. Due to his business talent, he has developed into a top executive at Albert Frère by closing several multi million euro deals. Gilles Samyn was knighted in the French Légion d'Honneur. He received the medals of honor from former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Gilles Samyn has always been affiliated with the ULB. Since 1981 he teaches at Ecole de Commerce Solvay.

Isabelle Langlois-Loris graduated as a commercial engineer from Solvay ULB and MBA INSEAD. Today, she is a partner at Egon Zehnder. From 2003 to 2018, she was director of the Solvay Schools alumni association and president from 2018 to 2024. She recently took on the organization of the biennial Solvay School Alumni Congress. 

As president of the Solvay Schools Alumni organization, Isabelle has coordinated many events for VUB Solvay alumni and master's students of the Solvay faculty. Within her network, she emphasizes the importance of women in top positions and on boards of directors, and inclusion more broadly. Her commitment to the Solvay Schools Alumni Congress, Egon Zehnder, the Solvay women alumni chapter and the Solvay Schools Alumni makes her a familiar face at both VUB and ULB. 

Isabelle Meunier graduated as Master of Science in Applied Economics at VUB in 1995. She started her career as an auditor in the Big 4-firm Deloitte Belgium (1995-2006) and became a registered auditor in 2004. In 2006 she switched to the Belgian Institute for Registered Auditors (IBR) where she first became responsible for the quality assurance and surveillance and since 2011 served as the Deputy Secretary General. After her career at the IBR she became Director at PWC Belgium in 2017.

Jo Coutuer graduated from KU Leuven as a commercial engineer in management informatics. He then obtained an MBA in international financial management. For most of his career, he was active as an entrepreneur, co-founding Numius, a business analytics company, in 1999 and merging it into Deloitte Consulting in 2012 . Since 2016 he has been a member of the executive committee of BNP Paribas Fortis as Chief Data Officer.

Coutuer has built up substantial experience in data management, data protection, data governance, artificial intelligence, big data architecture, analytics and business intelligence. He actively focuses on the protection of privacy with his support of the VUB Data Protection on the Ground chair. With this chair, his expertise will be applied throughout the university.

 

Joséphine Rebecca Vanden Broucke worked with former French President Giscard d’Estaing on the subsidiarity principle, which is now one of the basic principles of the European Union. During her political career she was successively alderman for education in Ghent, member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal and Flemish Minister of Economics, Research and Foreign Trade, Flemish Deputy Minister President and member of the Flemish Parliament. She has always been at the forefront in debates about research and education, multilingualism and equal opportunities. She has developed a research unit at the European Parliament Research Service monitoring the execution of the decisions of the European Council of Heads of State or Government of the European Union and served as EP liaison officer with the Congressional Research Service in Washington D.C. In 2018 Josephine Rebecca Vanden Broucke-Moerman became Justice at the Belgian Constitutional Court.

Karin Baetens studied information technology at Karel de Grote university college and, as a co-founder of IT solutions provider Exerti, is an expert in project management and change processes in profit and non-profit organisations. She has outstanding relations with Microsoft and has significant expertise in MS Project and ICT training.Baetens has a special relationship with VUB and is committed to passing on her knowledge to young people. VUB can always count on her when in need of digital solutions. In recent years she has offered workshops to students in project management and soft skills. Under her Fellowship, she wants to offer MS Project workshops on project management and tools to both students and staff.

Before joining Egon Zehnder in 1995, Karsten De Clerck held a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles at Callebaut International, the world’s leading chocolate producer, last as its Sales and Marketing Director for the U.K. and Ireland.

Karsten De Clerck earned a master’s in commercial engineering from the Solvay School of Economics and Management of VUB and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He has been elected Chairman of the VUB in 2019 and equally is a member of the university hospital governing board.

 

Lars Bové is a journalist with the Belgian newspaper De Tijd and a journalism teacher in Brussels (Campus Persgroep) and Antwerp (Lessius Hogeschool). He started his reporting career in 2003, first as an investigative journalist for the Belgian magazine Humo and later for De Tijd. Lars Bové has received awards for his work, such as the Citibank Journalistic Excellence Award 2012. He conducted research into the profit of the criminal economy in Belgium and the Belfius Press Award 2013 for a research report on the tax contributions of billionaire Bernard Arnault.

Lieven Deketele obtained a MSc in Applied Engineering Industrial Chemistry in 1996 and a Master in Industrial Management in 2010 at Ghent University. He is currently a Technical Section Head in Procter & Gamble organization where he coordinates eCommerce logistics research & development in the Global Supply Network Innovation Center. After a career of 11 years in product development involving the launch of several new to the market products Lieven was the first P&G researcher to be fully dedicated to the field of Logistics R&D and is now a full time member of the Supply Network Innovation Center that was founded in fall 2009. In this role, Lieven is leading the research on eCommerce Logistics and is process designer and owner for innovation methodologies. Lieven maintains contacts with academia, associations and companies in the field of logistics supply chain design and is in the advisory board of the Flanders Institute of Logistics.

Luc Bontemps graduated as business engineer at the VUB in 1978, and started his career as a researcher and teaching assistant at VUB, within the current department of Business. After 3 years, he joined, among others, leading companies in the automotive industry such as Pirelli and Recticel Automotive, where he held various senior management positions at both the national and international level. In 1999, he joined FEBIAC to offer his industrial expertise to one of the most important and well-known trade associations in Belgium and served as its CEO until November 2020.

Luc Lallemand built a career in technologies that support transport and financial management. After obtaining a degree in Nautical Sciences at the Antwerp Maritime Academy, he obtained a degree in Business Engineering at the Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer and a diploma at the Institut de Cambisme et de Finance Internationale, both located in Brussels. In 1995 he started his career at the Treasury department of NMBS. In 1999 he became the deputy head of cabinet for Belgium’s Vice-Prime Minister, with responsibility for complex matters such as public finances, public debt, public companies and transport. In 2002 he rejoined NMBS as CFO and member of the Executive Committee. After his career as CEO of Infrabel (2004-2020), he currently serves as the chairman and CEO of SNCF Réseau.

Ludo Vandervelden has been active in the automotive sector for 24 years, including at Daimler and Toyota Motor Europe. He was repeatedly named by Data News as one of the top 10 CIOs in Belgium. He is highly valued for his expertise in the field of business strategy and project management. After his career at Elicio and Arcadia he became senior advisor at I4B, the Belgian Infrastructure Fund.

Michel Van den Broeck has gained his expertise in the field of leadership, change and dynamics of organizations. He has over 30 years national and international experience in the field of transport and logistics, and in the field of automotive financing and distribution. 

This makes him an experienced international CEO & Chairman, and Supervisory Board Member. Currently, he is a board member of many automotive & insurance, distribution & financial services companies.

 

Micheline Scheys graduated as a sociologist at the VUB in 1974. She worked as a researcher at the VUB for almost 20 years. Since 1993, she is employed at the Ministry of Education: first as a researcher, later on as the head of the section ‘Policy Oriented Coordination’. In 2010, she became the first female Secretary General of the Education Department in Flanders. Now she is President of National Confederation of Socialist Mutualities.

Nico Reeskens graduated in 1985 as Business Engineer at the VUB. He started his career in management at Andersen Consulting. This was followed by a long passage in ICT, with commercial and management positions at Apple, Orange Group, Scoot, Telenet and British Car Auctions. In 2013 he started as CEO at Adecco Group Belgium and in 2020 he became regional Head Sales & Marketing Northern Europe.

Olivier Vanden Eynde graduated as Business Engineer at the VUB Solvay Business School in 2003. During his studies, he founded his first social enterprise, Close the Gap where more than 1.5 million users in developing countries have gained access to modern ICT technologies. In 2009 he established a new company, WordLoop, to facilitate the creation of an environmentally sound, e-waste management system in developing countries. Until 2018, Vanden Eynde was the Deloitte part-time director of the corporate social responsibility and business development team. Since 2019 he is Founder & member of the Board of Directors at CTG Circular.

Pieter De Leenheer is 1upHealth's Chief Technology Officer, where he leads the definition and execution of technology strategy. His extensive background in computer science, data innovation and venture capital is the foundation from which he oversees 1up's technology functions, including platform engineering, machine learning and product support. In addition, Pieter is the founder of Collibra, a unicorn software company that grew out of his research on data governance at VUB. Since 2008, Collibra has been uniting organizations by delivering trusted data for any use, for any user and for any source, with a diverse global presence in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. Pieter also has a strong academic background and regularly writes, lectures and advises on computing and management aspects of data innovation. In addition, he is an expert for several national governments and the European Commission.

Saïda Sakali works for the King Baudouin Foundation, and is also active in the cultural sector. She is a member of the board of several cultural institutions boards including De Buren and the AB in Brussels and De Singel in Antwerp, Based on the motto ‘culture is everywhere’, she works on various initiatives to strengthen diversity and participation in culture.

Tamara De Bruecker graduated as a Solvay Business Engineer from VUB in 1990. She has a long and outstanding track record in marketing and communications at Flemish public transport operator De Lijn, Procter & Gamble and De Persgroep Publishing. Since 2018 she started as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing at STIB-MIVB. She also won a Gold Effie Award in 2015 for a De Lijn marketing campaign. This is the most prestigious award in marketing.

Thierry Geerts graduated as Solvay Business Engineer at VUB in 1989. During his studies, he already founded a student enterprise, within the framework of the Entrepreneurial Talent Corporation. After his studies, he started working as auditor for Coopers & Lybrand, but quite soon his passion for media, online marketing, and innovation led him to management and board positions at, among others, Corelio Publishing, Nostalgie, VAR, Clickx, and Passe-Partout. In 2008 he became CEO of Corelio Business Development and of Arkafund. Now he is Country Director of Google Belgium and he is positioned in the heart of online marketing and innovative entrepreneurship. Interestingly, he still combines his job at Google with a board position at Kasteel Den Brandt, an offspring of his student venture.

Vincent Verouden, a Dutch national, works as an economic analyst for the European Commission. He is a member of the Commission’s Recovery & Resilience Task Force, which was set up in July 2020 to coordinate the implementation of the recovery plans across the EU in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. He is the author of numerous articles and publications on competition economics, and co-editor of the reference book ‘EU State Aid Control: Law & Economics’ (2017). Vincent holds a Ph.D. in economics from Tilburg University (2001).

Willem Debeuckelaere studied Law at Ghent University. He worked as a lawyer between 1977 and 1995 and chief of staff for the Belgian minister of the interior from 1995 to 1998. He was a Trial Court Judge in Ghent, and in 2002, counselor for the Appellate court in Ghent. He was Vice President (2004-2007) and President (2007-2019) for the Belgian Data Protection Authority. Since November 2019, Willem Debeuckelaere is the General Chairman of the Vermeylenfonds.

Wim van Hees started his career at Philips Eindhoven where he conducted market research. In 1966 he started at Intermarco-Publicem, where he eventually became a member of the Board of Directors. In 1972 he co-founded the advertising agency Van Hees-Vlessing, currently known as BBDO. In 2007 he co-founded vzw Ademloos, of which he is president and spokesperson.

Xavier Verhaeghe holds a Masters in Management Sciences and an MBA from Solvay Business School, complemented by programs at the University of Chicago and London Business School. Since 2019 Xavier Verhaeghe has been a partner at PwC where he heads the Technology Consulting department. He has worked in the industry for about 26 years, six of which at Accenture, and some twenty at Oracle. Among other things, he was managing director for Oracle and Belgium for nine years before moving on to positions at European and EMEA level.