Roland Duchâtelet (; born 14 November 1946) is a Belgian businessman and politician. He is the owner of football clubs Carl Zeiss Jena and

Újpest Újpest (; german: Neu-Pest, en, New Pest) is the 4th District in Budapest, Hungary. It is located on the left bank of the Danube River. The name Újpest means "New Pest" because the city was formed on the border of the city of Pest, Hungary i ...

. He is the founder of the social-liberal political party

Vivant Vivant is a small social-liberal political party in Belgium founded by millionaire Roland Duchâtelet. In the regional elections in June 2004, the party formed a strategic alliance with the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). Both parties are ...

in Belgium.

Business

In 1990, he became involved in micro-electronics. He founded several multinational corporations, of which semi-conductor producer Melexis is the best known. Other corporations include

X-Fab The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries. The group specializes in the fabrication of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, as well as MEMS and solutions for high voltage appli ...

, which also produces semi-conductors, Epiq, which produces electronic systems, the online-television channel TVLokaal.com, and the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Elex. Through his businesses Duchâtelet became a multimillionaire. Duchâtelet is the main shareholder of two football clubs:

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Ober ...

(Germany, D4), and

Újpest FC Újpest Football Club () is a Hungarian professional football club, based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I. Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in 1905 and has been relegat ...

(Hungary, D1). He previously owned

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

which he sold in early 2015, Sint-Truidense, which he sold in 2017,

AD Alcorcón Agrupación Deportiva Alcorcón S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcorcón, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1971, it currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 1, holding home matches at the Municipal de Sant ...

, which he sold in 2019, and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

, which he sold in 2020. In March 2016 Roland Duchâtelet made headlines after a statement appeared on the Charlton Athletic website in which some of the club's fans were accused of wanting the club to fail. In the aftermath of this statement, Charlton's newly appointed head of communications resigned from her position. The Championship side was then relegated to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

on 19 April 2016. His controversial ownership has been met with widespread protests from Charlton supporters, who have formed the Coalition Against Roland Duchâtelet (CARD) and Women Against the Regime (WAR). Similar protests from supporters of Standard Liège resulted in Duchâtelet selling the Belgian side.

Politics

In 1993, Duchâtelet wrote a book ''NV België, verslag aan de aandeelhouders'' (''Joint stock company Belgium, a report to the shareholders''), published in early 1994. In his book, he pleaded for

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

and

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

transparency. He emphasized the necessity of sustainable development in a globalized world economy. He also proposed to lower Belgium's

public expenditure Public expenditure is spending made by the government of a country on collective needs and wants, such as pension, provisions, security, infrastructure, etc. Until the 19th century, public expenditure was limited as laissez faire philosophies ...

by 30%. A new political party BANAAN ("Beter Alternatieven Nastreven Als Apathisch Nietsdoen", or "Better seeking for alternatives than doing nothing in apathy") used this book as its political program. This party was committed to a

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...

and a

green tax shift An environmental tax, ecotax (short for ecological taxation), or green tax is a tax levied on activities which are considered to be harmful to the environment and is intended to promote environmentally friendly activities via economic incentives. ...

. After the 1995 elections in which BANAAN obtained 1% of the votes, Duchâtelet founded the

party/political movement which then entered in federal, regional and communal elections. In 1999, Vivant obtained 2,1% of the national votes. Duchâtelet is party chair and has been a candidate in several elections. In the movie ''La vie politique des Belges'' (2002) by Jan Bucquoy, Duchâtelet is depicted in Vivant's 1999 election campaign. In 2004 Vivant entered a political alliance with the

Flemish Liberals and Democrats french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts , abbreviation = Open Vld , logo = , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert , foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld) , predecessor = P ...

(VLD) and Duchâtelet published his second book ''De weg naar meer netto binnenlands geluk'' (''The road to more net domestic happiness''). In 2007 his party merged with the VLD, which entered in the next elections as ''Open VLD''. He was elected as a member of the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( nl, Senaat, ; french: Sénat, ; german: Senat) is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parli ...

in 2007.

Bibliography

* R. Duchâtelet, ''NV België, verslag aan de aandeelhouders'' (''Joint stock company Belgium, a report to the shareholders''), 1994 * R. Duchâtelet, ''De weg naar meer netto binnenlands geluk'' (''The road to more net domestic happiness''), 2004

References

External links

*
Homepage of Vivant
* * The Political Life of the Belgians: Tart/Vivant {{DEFAULTSORT:Duchatelet, Roland 1946 births Living people People from Merksem Belgian businesspeople KU Leuven alumni Members of the Belgian Federal Parliament Belgian social liberals Belgian football chairmen and investors