François Louis Virginie Meysman (born 6 April 1952) is a businessman best known for being the Chairman of

Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — and ...

at the time of its collapse.

Early life

He was born in

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 ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. He trained at the Vlekho in Brussels. He also has a degree from the

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Vlerick Business School ("Vlerick") is a Belgian business school with campuses in Ghent, Leuven, and Brussels. It is a result of a merger of MBA programmes of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and of the ''Instituut Professor Vlerick voor Mana ...

which is part of

Ghent University Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

Career

From 1977 to 1986 he worked for

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

. From 1986 to 1990 he worked for

Douwe Egberts Douwe Egberts is a Dutch brand specialising in coffee and related products. It is owned by of JDE Peet's, a Dutch global coffee and tea company. The brand is marketed to retail consumers in Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, New Zealand, ...

, the Dutch coffee brand, as deputy Marketing Director, later becoming its Marketing Director. From 17 May 2006 until 9 November 2011 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch engineering consultancy

Grontmij Sweco (originally "Swedish Consultants") is a European engineering consultancy company, active in the fields of consulting engineering, environmental technology and architecture. Sweco is one of Europe's leading architecture and engineering c ...

. From 2003–5 he was the Chief Executive of the Conseil de la Publicité (Raad voor de Reclame – the Belgian Advertising Standards Board). From 1 October 2007 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch company

Corporate Express Staples Business Advantage is the contract division of Staples Inc., providing a membership program for office products, technology products, facilities supplies and breakroom supplies to businesses and institutions. Established in 1993 as Sta ...

. He was also a Director of the private equity company GIMV (Gewestelijke Investerings Maatschappij voor Vlaanderen), the magazine publisher

Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen Nielsen Holdings plc (or Nielsen) is an American media audience measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide. For most of its history, the company was known for its two subsidiarie ...

(VNU), and the textile company Picanol since 18 April 2005.

Thomas Cook

He took over as Chairman of Thomas Cook Group on 1 December 2011. He had been chairman Designate since 1 October 2011. In an interview for ''The Report'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

on 9 February 2012 he said that company executives should lose their pay if the company underperforms, by performance targets. He said that shareholders were the wrong people to control company pay.Battling Boardroom Pay ''The Report'' February 2012
/ref>

Personal life

He lives in

Merchtem Merchtem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the villages of Brussegem and Hamme, the hamlets of Ossel and Peizegem, and Merchtem proper. On July 9, 2009, Merchtem had a total popu ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

. He is a supporter of the

Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams Christian Democratic and Flemish (, ; CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...

(CD & V) party.

References

External links

Thomas Cook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meysman, Frank 1952 births Businesspeople from Brussels People from Flemish Brabant Ghent University alumni Belgian marketing people Living people Vlerick Business School alumni