Board of Directors

Luc Bertrand (º1951, Belgian)

Luc Bertrand graduated in 1974 as a commercial engineer (KU Leuven). He began his career at Bankers Trust, as Vice-President and Regional Sales Manager, Northern Europe. He has been with Ackermans & van Haaren as a director since 1985, where he joined as financial director in 1986 and was chairman of the executive committee from 1990 to 2016. He is chairman of the board of directors of CFE, DEME and SIPEF and a director of Delen Private Bank, JM Finn, Bank J.Van Breda & C° and Verdant Bioscience. He is also chairman of the Duve Institute and Middelheim Promoters, member of a number of other boards of directors of non-profit associations and public institutions, such as Museum Mayer van den Bergh and Europalia, member of the board of trustees of Guberna and member of the general board of the Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Mandate ends 2027

(°1968, Belgian and Overseas Citizen of India)

Sonali Chandmal obtained a BA in Economics in 1992 from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard University in 1997. She was active as an investment banking associate at Robertson Stephens & Co from 1992 until 1995 and as a management consultant and subsequently senior manager at Bain & Company between 1997 and 2017 in London, San Francisco and Brussels. Sonali Chandmal also acts as an independent director at Ageas (Belgium), Ageas Portugal Grupo, Medicover (Sweden) and BW LPG (Norway). She is also on the board of Chapter Zero Brussels, a collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Initiative.

Mandate ends 2027

Marion Debruyne (º1972, Belgian)

Professor Marion Debruyne has a degree in civil engineering (RU Ghent - 1995) and a PhD in applied economic sciences (RU Ghent - 2002). She lectured at Wharton School, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and Goizueta Business School, all in the USA. Marion Debruyne was appointed dean of Vlerick Business School in 2015. . She is director at Kinepolis and Guberna.

Mandate ends 2028

Bart Deckers (°1978, Belgian)

Bart Deckers holds a degree in bio-engineering (KU Leuven, 2001) and a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences (KU Leuven, 2005). He also holds an MBA from Vlerick Management School (2006). Bart Deckers is since 2013 managing director of Invale, a family owned private equity fund that provides growth capital to Belgian SMEs. Before that, he worked at Aveve (2008-2013), a.o. as business unit manager plant nutrition, and at McKinsey & C° as management consultant (2006-2008).

Mandate ends 2026

Jacques Delen (º1949, Belgian)

Jacques Delen obtained the diploma of exchange agent in 1976. He has been the chairman of the board of directors of Delen Private Bank since July 1, 2014, and is also a director of the listed plantation group SIPEF and of Bank J.Van Breda & Cº. Jacques Delen was chairman of the board of directors of Ackermans & van Haaren from 2011 to 2016.

Mandate ends 2027

(°1975, Belgian)

Deborah Janssens obtained a Master of Laws at KU Leuven in 1998 and a Master of Laws at the New York University School of Law in the following year. She is a partner at the international law firm Freshfields, based in Brussels, and she specialises in a.o. mergers and acquisitions, public capital market transactions and corporate and financial law. She regularly advises on various aspects of ESG. She was a member of the audit and risk committee of Freshfields and is currently co-chair of the Industrials Group. She is a part-time guest lecturer for company law at the KU Leuven and a director of the Foundation KickCancer.

Mandate ends 2027

(°1963, Belgian)

Frank van Lierde obtained a Master in bio-engineering at KU Leuven in 1989. Between 1989 and 2021, Frank van Lierde had several leading roles at the American food group Cargill, where he was appointed as Member of the Global Executive Team, President of Food Ingredients and Bio Industrials in 2015. In that capacity he was jointly responsible for the execution of the ESG agenda of Cargill, with a personal focus on energy and water reduction and making the supply chains of cacao and palm oil more sustainable.

Frank van Lierde is also an independent director at the Dutch producer of insect-based protein Protix.

Mandate ends 2027

Julien Pestiaux (º1979, Belgian)

Julien Pestiaux graduated in electromechanical civil engineering with specialisation energy (Université Catholique de Louvain - 2003), and also obtained a master’s degree in engineering management (Cornell University - USA). Julien Pestiaux is a partner at Climact, an agency that provides advice on energy and climate issues. He is now leading a team developing a model for the EU Commission which assesses the potential for EU Member States to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases in the medium to long term. He worked for five years as a consultant and project leader at McKinsey & C°.

Mandate ends 2027

Thierry van Baren (º1967, French/Dutch)

Thierry van Baren holds a master's degree and teaching qualification in philosophy, an obtained an MBA, with specialisation marketing (Solvay Business School). He is currently an independent consultant. He worked for 13 years as a marketing consultant at, among others, TBWA Belgium, Ammirati Puris Lintas and Ogilvy Brussels.

Mandate ends 2026

Victoria Vandeputte (º1971, Belgian)

Victoria Vandeputte is a civil engineer electromechanics (KU Leuven - 1995) and holds a master's degree in risk management (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Bordeaux - 1996). She is currently member of the executive committee and Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer at Diversi Foods (Oetker-Gruppe).

Mandate ends 2026

Frederic van Haaren (º1960, Belgian)

Frederic van Haaren is an independent entrepreneur and Alderman of the Municipality of Kapellen in charge of public works, environment, green spaces and cemeteries. He is also director of Belfimas, chairman of ‘Consultatiebureau voor het Jonge Kind’ in Kapellen, and of Bosgroepen Antwerpen Noord, as well as member of the commission environment at Intercommunale Igean.

Mandate ends 2029

Pierre Willaert (º1959, Belgian)

Pierre Willaert holds a master's degree in commercial and financial sciences and obtained the degree of the Belgian Association of Financial Analysts (ABAF-BVFA).Pierre Willaert was a managing partner, and member of the audit committee, at Bank Puilaetco, until the acquisition by KBL in 2004. He worked for many years as a financial analyst at Bank Puilaetco and covered the main sectors represented on the Belgian stock exchange. He later became responsible for the Institutional Management department. He is also a director at Tein Technology, an ICT company in Brussels specialising in, among other things, video surveillance.

Mandate ends 2028