Maurice Robert Josse Marie Ghislain, Count Lippens (born 9 May 1943 in

Knokke Knokke () is a town in the municipality of Knokke-Heist, which is located in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. The town itself has 15,708 inhabitants (2007), while the municipality of Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants (2009). ...

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 ...

) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

businessman and

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

. He is the grandson of Maurice Lippens (1875) and brother of

Leopold Lippens Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

, mayor of

Knokke-Heist Knokke-Heist (; french: Knocke-Heist) is a municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Heist-aan-Zee, Knokke, Duinbergen, Ramskapelle and Westkapelle. On January 1, 2006 Knokke-Heist had a total ...

Education

Maurice Lippens obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) (

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 ...

) in 1967, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

(

U.S. 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

) in 1972.

Career

Maurice Lippens started his professional career in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

to assist with the reorganisation of the ''Maatschappij voor Zeevisserij'' where he stayed for five months, and then served his military service duties in the Belgian army. Afterwards, he went through an apprenticeship at the ''

Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (“Bank of Paris and the Netherlands”), generally referred to from 1982 as Paribas, was a French investment bank based in Paris. In May 2000, it merged with the Banque Nationale de Paris to form BNP Paribas. ...

'' (financial analysis), followed by the in financial management. After he graduated from Harvard Business School (MBA), he held management positions at ''Scienta S.A.'', the ''Société Européenne de Venture Capital''. He then took over a company in

on his own account, which was resold in 1979. Maurice Lippens joined the in 1981, in 1983, he became Managing Director, and then Chairman / Managing Director in 1988. He has been the Chairman of

Fortis Fortis may refer to: Business * Fortis AG, a Swiss watch company * Fortis Films, an American film and television production company founded by actress and producer Sandra Bullock * Fortis Healthcare, a chain of hospitals in India * Fortis Inc ...

since 1990, participating to the creation of the group. In 2000, he became Chairman of the Executive Committee of Fortis. In 2004, he became the sole President of the group. Mr Lippens was relieved of his position after a government bailout of the bank on 28 September 2008. He has been involved in numerous

law suit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

s and was accused of calling for private investors to buy more Fortis shares in June 2008. In 2009, he still owned his shares (920,000 shares) of Fortis. In 2012, a Dutch court cleared Maurice Lippens for the misleading financial information published by Fortis in May–June 2008. In 2018, the Belgian justice dropped charges against seven ex-directors of Fortis, including Maurice Lippens, considering that they could not have foreseen the

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the Financial crisis of 2007–2008, 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline ...

. After leaving Fortis in 2008, he lived off his family's real estate company.

Other positions

* Director Total * Director GBL (Group Bruxelles Lambert) * Director

Belgacom The Proximus Group is a provider of digital services and communication in Belgium and the international markets. In Belgium, its main products and services are offered under the Proximus, Scarlet, and Mobile Vikings brands. The Group is also ac ...

* Director Suez-Tractebel * 1983-...: President of Companie Het Zoute * Director * Director Finasucre * Director Groupe Sucrier * Member Trilateral Commission * Member Harvard Business School European Advisory Council * Member Insead Belgium Council * Member of the Belgian businessclub

Cercle de Lorraine The Cercle de Lorraine or Club van Lotharingen is a Belgian business club, located in Brussels, Belgium. The club was founded in 1998, and it wants to bring together, distinguished and representative personalities from the Belgian financial communi ...

Awards

2004: Grand Officer of the

Order of Léopold II The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Leopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as Sovereign of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgiu ...

References

1943 births Living people Flemish businesspeople Counts of Belgium People from Knokke-Heist Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni Grand Officers of the Order of Leopold II Harvard Business School alumni {{Belgium-business-bio-stub