Axel Miller (born 20 February 1965,

Uccle Uccle (French language, French, ) or Ukkel (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the southern part of the region, it ...

) is a Belgian businessman. From January 2006 to September 2008, he was

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and chairman of the management board of

Dexia Dexia N.V./S.A., or the Dexia Group, is a Franco-Belgian financial institution formed in 1996. At its peak in 2010, it had about 35,200 members of staff and a core shareholders' equity of €19.2 billion. In 2008, the bank entered severe ...

S.A. Since 2009, he is partner of Petercam, a Belgian financial group, active in private banking, institutional asset management and corporate finance.

Early life

Miller's mother was a chemist and his father a biochemist. He spent his childhood between France, England, and Belgium. In 1987, Miller obtained a master's degree in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

from the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

(ULB),

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Career

Miller started his career in 1987 as a lawyer working for the legal firm ''Simont & Simont''. In 1988, he worked in Alain Minc's team in the failed hostile

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

launched on the Générale de Belgique. In September 1990, he joined

Davis Polk & Wardwell Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, commonly known as Davis Polk, is an American multinational corporation, multinational law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C., Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, London, Madrid, Brussel ...

, first in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

(

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) then in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

). He went to work as a lawyer at the bar in Brussels in January 1991. In December 1991, he started working for ''Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot'' in Brussels, where he became a partner in 1996, a member of the recruitment committee and then member of the management board. In 1995, he was among the lawyers that worked on the merger of

Crédit Communal de Belgique The Crédit Communal de Belgique (, ) was a Belgian financial institution, established in 1860 and eventually merged with Crédit Local de France in 1996 to form Dexia. By the mid-1990s, it was the second-largest Belgian bank by total assets (beh ...

and Crédit Local de France to create

. As soon as 1997, he became an adviser to Dexia and to its CEO, Pierre Richard, and played an active role in the acquisition of the

Banque Internationale à Luxembourg Banque Internationale à Luxembourg S.A. (BIL, "International Bank in Luxembourg": Luxembourgish: ''International Bank zu Lëtzebuerg'') is the oldest private bank in Luxembourg. It offers commercial and corporate banking services, and was the co ...

in 1999, Financial Security Assurance in 2000 and Artesia in 2001. In May 1999, he joined ''Clifford Chance'' in Brussels as a partner. He joined the Dexia Group in 2001 as general counsel. Upon his arrival, he was in charge of merging the activities of three banks: Dexia Bank, Bacob Bank and Paribas Bank Belgium. In January 2002, he became a member of the management board of Dexia Bank, and in January 2003 he became chairman of the management board of Dexia Bank and head of personal financial services at group level. Miller is vice-president of the Belgian Banking Association and a member of the board of directors of Febelfin. He is also a director of several Dexia Group companies, of , of

Crédit du Nord () was a French retail banking network. It consisted of the following banks: * , Toulouse, Aquitaine (oldest existing bank in France, founded in 1760) * , Alsace, Lorraine * , Savoy * , Massif Central * , Lyon * , Limoges * , Marseille * itse ...

and of

Carmeuse {{Infobox company , name = Carmeuse , logo = Logo_Carmeuse.jpg , type = Private , foundation = 1860 , location = Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium , key_people = Sébastien Dossogne (Chief Executive Officer) , industry = Mining Company , products ...

Holding. In 2006, Miller became the CEO of

. In June 2006, he led the acquisition of Turkish DenizBank. As head of Dexia, he also had to deal with the

Lernout & Hauspie Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) was a Belgium-based speech recognition technology company, founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, that went bankrupt in 2001 because of a fraud engineered by the management. The company was based in Ypres, ...

affair. Following the

subprime mortgage crisis The American subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010, contributing to the 2008 financial crisis. It led to a severe economic recession, with millions becoming unemployed and many busines ...

, Miller resigned on 30 September 2008. In 2009, he became a partner of Petercam, a Belgian financial group, active in private banking, institutional asset management and corporate finance. In August 2013, he was appointed CEO of D'Ieteren, a major car distributor in Western Europe.

Bailout

On 30 September 2008 the Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments said they would put in 6.4bn euros ($9bn; £5bn) into keep Dexia afloat. On the same day at 10:02am the

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

broke news which had come from the news provider AFP "Dexia Chairman and the Chief Executive resign after bailout". This was later confirmed live on the BBC News Channel from Brussels at 10:24am. Miller and Pierre Richard were chairman and chief executive respectively. A Belgian parlemential commission concluded after a deep investigation that the former CEO of Dexia failed to do his job and was responsible for the bailout of Dexia.https://www.rtbf.be/article/commission-dexia-le-rapport-final-adopte-par-8-voix-contre-5-7736077

Personal life

Miller is divorced from Catherine Duhen. They have four children together. He’s now married with Julie Dupont.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Axel 1965 births Living people Belgian businesspeople Université libre de Bruxelles alumni Davis Polk & Wardwell lawyers