sovereign states: the next lbo’s? · alumni spirit, to reinforce the solvay schools and their...

SOVEREIGN STATES: THE NEXT LBO’S?

Programme of the day

Luc COENE

Herman DAEMS

Alain MINC

Robert SHILLER

Professors at the Solvay Schools:

Peter PRAET and Freddy VAN den SPIEGEL

Programme Edited bios.indd 1 15/10/2014 15:46:31

Dear Madam, Dear Sir, Dear Alumni,

As you may already know, Ernest Solvay did not only found the “Solvay Schools”, he also created institutes in natural and social sciences and launched in 1911 international congresses in the fields of physics and chemistry, gathering leading figures and one or more Nobel Prize winners in these disciplines.

Back in 2005, Gilles suggested to Solvay Schools Alumni to organize similar events in the fields of business. Today you are attending our fifth edition.

Numerous objectives are met through our congresses amongst which:

• To highlight Solvay Schools Alumni’s capacity to gather both internationally renowned speakers and business related individuals in Brussels, capital of Europe;

• To bear high the colours of our Solvay Schools;

• To address topics that link business, economy and society, hence that influence the business as well as our politics;

• This while generating a financial surplus that is split between the funding of the association which itself finances a chair at the Schools level as well as supports many of their activities always looking at empowering the Alumni network;

• Our endowment that will finance events organized in partnership between our association and the Schools, strictly dedicated to teaching of business, management and economics.

We are proud and profoundly pleased to announce that this congress has created the opportunity to offer both Schools’ master students a lecture by professor R. Shiller.

This is what our Alumni association stands for: support to the Schools, offering their students exceptional experiences and giving back to society… Not forgetting to maintain the Solvay Schools Alumni spirit, to reinforce the Solvay Schools and their Alumni network, encouraging them to create a virtuous circle to the benefit of all parties and society.

In this regard it is essential that our congresses not only gather Alumni, but as many people from different horizons as possible. Today offers us the opportunity to thank all of you warmly for your presence.

Last, but not least, it is our honour and great pleasure, on behalf of our association to thank our speakers Luc COENE, Herman DAEMS, Alain MINC, Robert SHILLER as well as our colleagues, professors Peter PRAET and Freddy VAN den SPIEGEL.

Gilles SAMYN

Christian JOURQUIN

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We are already looking forward to seeing you again in late 2016 for our next congress.

Thankfully, friendly and sincerely yours,

Gilles SAMYN Christian JOURQUIN, President

Special thanks :• To the team of volunteers without whom this congress simply would not have taken place: thank

you Alexandra, David, Fabienne, Laetitia, Leen, Marie, Michaël, Nicolas;• To the Solvay students for supporting the team during the congress and to Solvay Kring in

particular for the graphic design;• To the sponsors, whose names appear at the back of this program, for their generous support as

well as to Geert NOELS for his input.

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Dear Madam, Dear Sir, Dear Alumni,

It is our great pleasure to be part of and contribute to this third big congress, organized by you as Solvay Schools Alumni . This event is unique in Belgium, not only because of the excellence of the program and its speakers, but even more so because it is initiated and set up almost completely by our Alumni association.

Of course, this happens in close and friendly collaboration with the two Solvay Schools, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. We as deans of these two schools are proud to count on such dynamic and ambitious Alumni.

We thank in particular the former Chairman of our Alumni association Gilles Samyn. Gilles is the inspirator of the idea to organize on a regular basis this type of high-level scientific meetings, in the spirit of our founder Ernest Solvay who in the first part of last century brought to Brussels scientific stars like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.

It is this inspiration that has made possible the presence today with us of an extremely distinguished set of speakers. We are extremely grateful for their presence and their decisive contribution to this congress. We are also extremely grateful to you who, individuals as well as guests of corporations have made sure to be part of our audience today.

We are also particularly pleased with this event because it corresponds so well to thevalues our Schools want to aim for: excellence, relevance, breadth and internationalization. Excellence is obvious when one looks at the quality of our international speakers. Relevance is also obvious: the economic and social consequences of overleveraging by sovereign states could be huge. And it is fair to state that the impact of potential disaster will affect many stakeholders and countries. This is why a broad set of experts from different disciplines and countries has been mobilized in order to analyze the interaction between its various facets: governance, regulation and management.

Finally, this congress is a reminder of the value of unity: just like the Alumni association is stronger thanks to its inclusion of both Solvay ULB and VUB graduates, so do our Schools benefit from a strong cooperation, in teaching as well as in research projects. It is our firm intention to keep developing them in the future, and we know we can count on your support: many, many thanks for your continuing precious help!

Joël BRANSON

Bruno van POTTELSBERGHE

Joel BRANSONDean of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences Solvay Business School, VUB

Bruno van POTTELSBERGHEDean of the Faculty Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, ULB


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Luc COENE

Since 1 April 2011, Luc Coene has been governor of the National Bank of Belgium, as well as a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the European Central Bank. He is also a director at the Bank for International Settlements and has a seat on the G10 Board of Governors. He has been a Minister of State since 2003. Mr Coene was born in Ghent in 1947. He obtained a degree in Economics at the Rijks+universiteit Gent in 1970, and, the next year, a post-graduate diploma in European economic integration at the College of Europe in Bruges. He began his career in 1973 at the National Bank, where he worked successively in the Research and Foreign Departments. In 1979, he became the assistant of the Belgian Administrator at the International Monetary Fund. He came back to Belgium in 1985 for three years, first as deputy chef de cabinet to the Minister of Finance, and then as chef de cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister and Budget Minister. In 1988, he returned to Washington as a visiting scholar at the IMF. A year later, he took up a job as Economic Adviser at the European Commission (DGII) for three years. In 1992, he came back to the National Bank to work as advisor to the Foreign Department. In 1995, he became a senator, a position that he held until 1999. In that year he became the Prime Minister’s chef de cabinet and Secretary to the Council of Ministers. Finally, in 2003, he was appointed vice-governor of the National Bank, a position he held until he was appointed governor.

Herman DAEMS

Dr. Herman Daems is Chairman of the Board of BNP Paribas Fortis, Chairman of the Board of KU Leuven and Chairman of the Board of BARCO (a publicly listed technology group on Euronext). Herman Daems was Chairman of the Board of Gimv from May 1999 till June 2011 (a publicly listed PE and VC firm on Euronext), Daems made a career in academia, policy-making and consulting. He is an emeritus professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management of K.U. Leuven, Belgium. He was chairman of EVCA, the European Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital in 2004-2005, member of the executive committee of EVCA between 2002 and 2006 and Chairman of IPEV from 2005 till 2012. He has chaired the Belgian Corporate Governance Committee which sets, as provided by law, the governance code for boards of listed companies in Belgium. Professor Daems is a member of the executive committee of the VBO/FEB, the Belgian employers association and holds several board positions.

Keynote speakers will address questions on what challenges our country will face due to the high debts.


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Alain MINC

Alain Minc was born in Paris on April 15, 1949. Mr Minc is a graduate of the Ecole des Mines de Paris and of ENA. After serving as Inspecteur des Finances, Mr Minc joined Compagnie de Saint-Gobain in 1979, as chief Financial officer. In 1986, Mr Minc became Vice-Chairman of CIR International (Compagnie Industriali Riunite International) and General Manager of Cerus (Compagnies Européennes Réunies) which were the non Italian affiliates of Benedetti Group. In 1991, Alain Minc founded its own consultancy firm AM Conseil.He has been Board member of numerous companies and the chairman of the supervisory board of Le Monde, the leading French newspaper (19/12/94 to 11/02/2008)He is Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur (France) ; Commander of the Order of the British Empire ; Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit (Spain). Alain Minc wrote more than 30 books since 1978, among them some have been best sellers (Rapport sur l’informatisation de la société ; La Machine égalitaire ; La vengeance des Nations ; le Nouveau Moyen âge ; Rapport sur la France de l’an 2000 ; www.capitalisme.fr ; Epître à nos nouveaux maîtres (2003) ; Les Prophètes du bonheur : histoire personnelle de la pensée économique (2004) ; Ce monde qui vient (2004). Le Crépuscule des petits dieux (2006) ; Une sorte de Diable, les vies de John M. Keynes (December 2006). ) ; Une histoire de France (2008), Dix jours qui ébranleront le monde (2009). Une histoire politique des intellectuels (2011) ; Un petit coin de paradis ; L’Âme des Nations (2012) ; L’Homme aux deux visages (2013). Vive l’Allemagne (2013)

Robert SHILLER

One of the most far-seeing political economists of our time, Robert J. Shiller is known the world over for his brilliant forecasts of financial bubbles and his penetrating insights into market dynamics and how human psychology drives the economy. For his empirical analysis of asset prices, Robert was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics. He has offered audiences unerring predictions of the last two bubble collapses and he continues to offer a road map for reversing the financial crisis we face today.Robert is a famously successful innovator in the emerging field of behavioural finance. He co-created the most widely quoted home price index in the country (the S&P/ Case-Shiller Index) and is the author of a book — The New Financial Order — that offers truly creative and workable solutions to some of our greatest financial problems.He also helped launch an active market in house-price futures and options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Dr. Shiller is the Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He has strong connections to the securities industry.He cofounded MacroMarkets LLC, which uses the Case-Shiller methodology to develop innovative financial instrumentsto facilitate investment and risk management. He contributes regularly to the Economic View column of The New York Times and to Project Syndicate.


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Peter PRAET

Peter Praet joined the European Central Bank as Member of the Executive Board in 2011.He is responsible for Economics and Human Resources, Budget and Organisation.Before joining the ECB, Peter Praet was Executive Director of the National Bank of Belgium (2000-2011). Here he was responsible for International Cooperation, Financial Stability and Oversight of Financial Infrastructures and Payments Systems.Between 2002 and 2011, he was also a Member of the Management Committee of the Belgian Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission (CBFA), where he was responsible for Prudential Policy for banking and insurance. Peter Praet served as Chief of Cabinet for the Belgian Minister of Finance from 1999-2000, as Chief Economist of Générale de Banque and Fortis Bank from 1988-1999, as Professor of Economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles from 1980-1987, and as Economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1978-1980.He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1980. Peter Praet served on several high-level international committees, including the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, the Committee on the Global Financial System, and the European Banking Authority. He was First Alternate of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements from 2000-2011.

Freddy VAN den SPIEGEL

Freddy Van den Spiegel has a Phd degree of the Free University Brussels (VUB). In 2000 he was Chief economist of Fortis, later BNP Paribas Fortis until 2012. Between 1990 and 2000 he was CEO of Fortis investments. Over the last 20 years, he has been active as an advisor to the European Commission and the European Parliament on the issue of financial integration and the design of the EU financial system. Since 2012 he is focusing on his academic activitie at Solvay Business School and Vlerick Business School, and his activities as a consultant to several European financial business federations. His main fields of interest are financial management, design of the financial system, and financial integration within the EU.

Professors at the Solvay Schools will present their vision on the subject and ask a question to each of the keynote speakers.


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Programme of the dayWELCOME AT TOUR & TAXIS

ACADEMIC SESSION

R. SHILLER Sterling Professor of Economics (Yale University) and professor of Finance and fellow at the International Centre for Finance (Yale School of Management)

L. COENE Governor of the NATIONAL BANK OF BELGIUM

H. DAEMS Chairman of the Board of BNP PARIBAS FORTIS

A. MINC Essayist and Chairman of AM Conseil

QUESTION TIMELED BY THE PROFESSORS OF THE SOLVAY SCHOOLS

P. PRAET ECB Executive Board Member

F. VAN den SPIEGEL Former Chief Economist at BNP PARIBAS FORTIS

COCKTAIL

DINNER

NETWORKING

17:00(to 17:45)

18:00 (sharp)

19:45

20:40

21:30

23:00


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Notes


Platinum Sponsors

Gold SponsorsAbelagAccentureAckermans & van HaarenAG Real EstateArtoosAT KearneyBelfiusBSCABelgian Sky ShopsCBRCEPAC

Club Med BusinessCNPCOFINIMMOBank DegroofErgon ZehnderELIAFellowship VUBFondation Roi BaudouinGalaxisGBLGoldman Sachs

INGKeytrade BankLeonidasLinklatersLVMH PublicaMcKinsey & CompanyNeuhausOraclePetercamPuilaetco Private BankersRectorat ULB

RTBFRussell Reynolds AssociatesSopuraSoudalThrombogenicsTreetop Asset ManagementULB AdministrationGLG PartnersP&V

Special Sponsors

With the support of our Global Sponsors


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