Ferdinand "Fred" Chaffart (1936 in

Deurne, Belgium Deurne () is the second largest district of the municipality of Antwerp, Belgium, (right after the Antwerp town district) and has 80.781 inhabitants (2021). Deurne is best known for its green environment with the biggest park in Antwerp Rivieren ...

– 22 February 2010 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 ...

) was a Belgian businessman.

Education

He obtained a master's degree in

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and completed the Senior Executive Program at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Career

He started his career in the paint shop of his parents. In 1964 he started working at the marketing department of

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 ...

and subsequently worked for several marketing bureaus and the marketing department of IPPA Bank. In 1979 he started working for the ''Tiense Suiker'' (E: Sugar factory of

Tienen Tienen (; french: Tirlemont ) is a city and municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises Tienen itself and the towns of Bost, Goetsenhoven, Hakendover, Kumtich, Oorbeek, Oplinter, Sint-Marg ...

), where he became CEO. In 1989, the company was sold to

Südzucker Südzucker AG (, literally ''South sugar'') is a Germany, German company, the largest sugar producer in the world, with an annual production of around 4.8 million tonnes. In February 2014, the Federal Cartel Office imposed a joint fine of 280 mi ...

. From 1990 until 1998 he worked for CBR Cement and the

Generale Bank Fortis, formally Fortis N.V./S.A., was a Benelux-centered global financial services group active in insurance, banking and investment management, initially formed in 1990 by a three-way Belgian-Dutch merger and headquartered in Brussels. It grew ...

(Fortis), wherein both cases he became CEO. After the acquisition of Fortis by Suez in 1998, he left the company. He became president of the board of the '' Gevaert holding'' for a short while. In 1999 the Belgian government asked him to manage the

dioxin Dioxin may refer to: * 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-Dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings where two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, giving the molecular formula C4H4O2 *Dibenzo-1,4-dioxin, the parent compound also known as ...

crisis. In 2001 he became chairman of the board of directors of

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its ba ...

, but could not save the company from bankruptcy.Belgian national airline bankrupt
/ref> From 2000 until 2005, he was president of the

European League for Economic Cooperation The European League for Economic Cooperation or ELEC (french: Ligue Européenne de Coopération Économique, LECE) is an independent political advocacy group which advocates for closer European integration. Established in 1946, ELEC was one of the ...

. Until his death in 2010 he was a director of

Agfa-Gevaert Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. It has three divisions: * Agfa Graphics, which offers integrated pre ...

, Icos Vision Systems, Spadel and VUM.

References

Sources

Fred chaffart & Sabena

Fred chaffart & Icos Vision Systems

De Morgen, 23 februari 2010: Biografie Fred Chaffart
Belgian businesspeople 1936 births 2010 deaths People from Deurne, Belgium {{Belgium-business-bio-stub