Karel Vinck (born 19 September 1938) is a Belgian businessman. In 1994 the readers of the weekly business magazine Trends chose him to be the Manager of the year. He graduated as a Master in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

(

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, Belgium) and got an MBA from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

(

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

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 ...

Career

He started his career at

Eternit Eternit is a registered trademark for a brand of fibre cement currently owned by the Belgian company Etex. Fibre is often applied in building and construction materials, mainly in roofing and facade products. Material description The term ...

. Afterwards Karel Vinck was director of Bekaert N.V from 1985 up to 1994. In 1995, he started working for Union Minière, where he led the restructuring of the company. He is also a member of the Board of Suez-Tractebel, Tessenderlo Group, of the

and of the ''Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie''. He is Co-ordinator of the

European Rail Traffic Management System The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the o ...

(ERTMS) with the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, and chairman of Cumerio. Karel Vinck is honorary chairman of the Flemish employers association (VEV), and Chairman of the

Flemish Science Policy Council The Flemish Council for Science and Innovation (, VRWI), previously known as the Flemish Council for Science Policy (, VRWB) is the advisory body of the Flemish Government and the Flemish Parliament for science and technology policy. The VRWB provid ...

Sources

Karel Vinck
(Umicore) 1938 births Living people Flemish businesspeople KU Leuven alumni People from Aalst, Belgium Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management alumni {{Belgium-business-bio-stub