Rudi, Baron Thomaes (21 August 1952 – 25 July 2018) was a Belgian businessman and

CEO 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 ...

of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises and a member of VOKA.

Education

He graduated as a bachelor of law from the

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp () is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UAntwerp''. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 students, which makes it the third-largest university in Flanders. ...

(UFSIA) and obtained a master's degree in law from the University of Antwerp (UIA).

Career

He started his career as a ''Financial Export Coordinator'' at Bell Telephone in 1976. He became managing director and Chairman of the Management Committee of Alcatel Bell in 1999. From 1979 until 1981 he was responsible for social, legal and fiscal affairs with

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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 ...

. In 1981 he returned to Bell Telephone as a contract lawyer until 1983, during this period he negotiated the joint venture and licence contract with China. From 1984 until 1986, he was Assistant Director and Head of the Export Treasury and International Contracts Department at Bell Telephone. From 1986 until 1988 he was Area Manager EMEA and responsible for the marketing of digital switching networks. From 1988 until 1998, he was General Counsel for Alcatel Bell, and responsible for the legal department and the relations with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. In 1997, he became responsible for the strategic change plan of Alcatel Bell. On 1 January 1999, he became Chief Operating Officer and on 1 October 1999 Chief Executive Officer and President of the Alcatel Bell Management Committee From 2004 to 2012, Rudi Thomaes was CEO of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises and since 29 March 2005 he was a regent of the

National Bank of Belgium The National Bank of Belgium (NBB; , NBB; , BNB; , BNB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Belgium within the Eurosystem. It was the Belgian central bank from 1850 until 1998, established by law of and issuin ...

Sources

Rudi Thomaes
(European Business Summit]
Rudi Thomaes
(NBB) 1952 births 2018 deaths Belgian businesspeople University of Antwerp alumni {{Belgium-business-bio-stub