VUB Fellowship launched with entitlement of first 5 Fellows of the VUB

On September 12th 2012 the Vrije Universiteit Brussel officially launched the VUB Fellowship. The aim: to actively support interaction and cooperation between highly experienced members of society and business, by entitling them as Fellows of the VUB. At the launch, the very first Fellows of the VUB were proposed.

During the ceremony to celebrate the launch of the VUB Fellowship, the very first Fellows of the VUB were proposed by the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences and Solvay Business School. They officially received the title of “Solvay Fellow VUB” during the ceremony hosted by professor Paul De Knop, Rector and Eddy Van Gelder, Chairman of the VUB Board.

A platform where academia and the world of society and business meet

The VUB establishes with the Fellowship a platform for academia and the world of society and business to meet, discuss challenges, exchange experiences, share good practice and to learn from each other.

The VUB Fellowship will initiate concrete actions to support the implementation of partnership approaches in academia, at the benefit of research and academic education. The VUB considers the VUB Fellowship as a main vector to foster the employability of graduates, stimulate research and overall improve our innovation capacity and competitiveness.

The five Solvay Fellows VUB of the class 2012 are:

• Xavier Verhaeghe, Vice-President Technology Solutions Oracle Europe, Middle-East & Africa & Managing Director Oracle Belgium & Luxembourg
• Karsten De Clerck, Partner Egon Zehnder Int’l
• An Verhulst-Santos, President L’Oréal Professional Products Worldwide
• Ludo Vandervelden, CFO/CIO Umicore
• Michel Van den Broeck, Managing Director LeasePlan Belgium

For more information on the VUB Fellowship, please contact professor Elvira Haezendonck, Coordinator and Associate professor in Management and Solvay Fellowship, or Ann Verbeeck, University Fellowship, Manager: FellowsVUB@vub.ac.be.