François Louis Virginie Meysman (born 6 April 1952) is a businessman best known for being the Chairman of

Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — an ...

at the time of its collapse.

Early life

He was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. He trained at the Vlekho in Brussels. He also has a degree from the

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Vlerick Business School ("Vlerick") is a Belgian business school with campuses in Ghent, Leuven and Brussels. It is a result of a merger of the MBA programmes of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and of the ''Instituut Professor Vlerick voor Ma ...

which is part of

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

Career

From 1977 to 1986 he worked for

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

. From 1986 to 1990 he worked for

Douwe Egberts Douwe Egberts is a Dutch brand of coffee which is majority-owned by JDE Peet's. It was founded in Joure, Netherlands, by Egbert Douwes in 1753 as De Witte Os ("The White Ox"), a general grocery shop. The company later started dealing specifically ...

, the Dutch coffee brand, as deputy Marketing Director, later becoming its Marketing Director. From 17 May 2006 until 9 November 2011 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch engineering consultancy

Grontmij Grontmij was an engineering consultancy based in the Netherlands. The company was the third largest of its kind in Europe, with approximately 6,000 employees and almost 300 offices across the continent and a further 50 offices globally. In 2015 t ...

. From 2003–5 he was the Chief Executive of the Conseil de la Publicité (Raad voor de Reclame – the Belgian Advertising Standards Board). From 1 October 2007 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch company

Corporate Express Staples Business Advantage is the contract division of Staples Inc., providing a membership program for office products, technology products, facilities supplies and breakroom supplies to businesses and institutions. Established in 1993 as Stap ...

. He was also a Director of the private equity company GIMV (Gewestelijke Investerings Maatschappij voor Vlaanderen), the magazine publisher

Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen Nielsen Holdings plc is an American information, data and market measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and use ...

(VNU), and the textile company

Picanol {{Unreferenced, date=July 2021 The Picanol Group is a diversified industrial group in the fields of mechanical engineering, agriculture, food, water management, and other industrial markets. The company is based in Ypres (Belgium), with production p ...

since 18 April 2005.

Thomas Cook

He took over as Chairman of Thomas Cook Group on 1 December 2011. He had been chairman Designate since 1 October 2011. In an interview for ''The Report'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

on 9 February 2012 he said that company executives should lose their pay if the company underperforms, by performance targets. He said that shareholders were the wrong people to control company pay.Battling Boardroom Pay ''The Report'' February 2012
/ref>

Personal life

He lives in

Merchtem Merchtem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the villages of Brussegem and Hamme, the hamlets of Ossel and Peizegem, and Merchtem proper. On July 9, 2009, Merchtem had a total popul ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Haina ...

. He is a supporter of the

Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams Christian Democratic and Flemish (, , CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations (UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party wa ...

(CD & V) party.

References

External links

Thomas Cook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meysman, Frank 1952 births Businesspeople from Brussels People from Flemish Brabant Ghent University alumni Belgian marketing people Living people Vlerick Business School alumni