Register now for our annual Economic Outlook Dinner, with key business, public and academic actors sharing their views on Government Debt evolution.

Where

Africa Palace
Avenue des Palais
Tervuren, Belgium

Driving Directions:

Free parking onsite.

Event Details

On the theme of "Rethinking Government Debt" we will explore government debt in these challenging times (e.g., the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis), and have 3 keynote speakers: 

o Annelies Verlinden: Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal
o Randall S. Kroszner: Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
o Gert Peersman: Senior Full Professor in the Department of Economics at Ghent University

- The panel will be moderated by:
o Joost Van Meerbeeck: (MBA '89) Managing Director SUSTINVEST - Co-Chairman Leuven Institute For Advanced Study

- With thanks to our sponsors: 

Platinum sponsors:

o The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
o BrightWolves
o Russell Reynolds Associates

Golden Sponsors: 

o McKinsey & Co
o Ackermans & Van Haaren
o Stibbe; Gimv; Linklaters; Luminus; Quinz; Rothschild & Co; SUSTINVEST; Cargill; Whitestone Group; 

Cost

95 euros for paying members of the UofC Alumni Club.

135 euros for non-members.

960 euros for a table of 8.

Registration

Register Online

Please email: elkesegersmsika@gmail.com for all table settings and any other information

Deadline: 2/23/2023

Speaker Profiles

Annelies Verlinden (Speaker)
Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal, Belgian Government
https://verlinden.belgium.be/nl

2020 : Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal
When the federal government was appointed, Annelies Verlinden was appointed Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal.

2014 : Co-managing partner - DLA Piper
2011 : Partner public and administrative law - DLA Piper
2002 : Lawyer

Randall S. Kroszner (Speaker)
Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/k/randall-s-kroszner

Randall S. Kroszner is Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics. He previously served as Deputy Dean for Executive Programs at Booth, as well as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System from 2006 until 2009. He chaired the committee on Supervision and Regulation of Banking Institutions and the committee on Consumer and Community Affairs. In these capacities, he took a leading role in developing responses to the financial crisis and in undertaking new initiatives to improve consumer protection and disclosure, including rules related to home mortgages and credit cards. He represented the Federal Reserve Board on the Financial Stability Forum (now called the Financial Stability Board), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and the Central Bank Governors of the American Continent and was a director of NeighborWorks America. Dr. Kroszner chaired the working party of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), composed of deputy central bank governors and finance ministers, on Policies for the Promotion of Better International Payments Equilibrium. As a member of the Fed Board, he was also a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Kroszner was a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). He was involved in formulating policy on a wide range of issues, including responses to corporate governance scandals, government-sponsored enterprise reform, pension reform, terrorism risk insurance, tax reform, currency crisis management, sovereign debt restructuring, the role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and international trade and development.

Since 1990, Dr. Kroszner has taught at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Dr. Kroszner was Director of the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. He served as editor of the Journal of Law & Economics and has been associate editor of a number of other academic and policy journals. He was a member of the board of directors at the National Association for Business Economics and the Financial Management Association.

Dr. Kroszner serves as the Chair of the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the Office of Financial Research of the U.S. Treasury. He is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Academic Advisory Council and of the board of advisors of the Paulson Institute. In addition, he is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is member of the board of trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a member of the board of directors of the Renaissance Society.

Dr. Kroszner has been a visiting scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IMF, the Stockholm School of Economics, the Stockholm University, the Free University of Berlin, Germany, the London School of Economics, and the American Enterprise Institute. He was the John M. Olin Visiting Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School the Bertil Danielson Visiting Professor of Banking and Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics, and the SK Chaired Visiting Professor at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea.

His research interests include regulation of financial institutions, international financial crises, the Great Depression, monetary economics, corporate governance, debt restructuring and bankruptcy, and political economy. His paper on managerial stock ownership (with Clifford Holderness and Dennis Sheehan) won the Brattle Prize for best corporate finance paper in the Journal of Finance. His book co-authored with Nobel laureate Robert J. Shiller, Reforming U.S. Financial Markets: Reflections Before and Beyond Dodd-Frank (MIT Press) appeared on the Washington Post's Book World political best sellers list.

Dr. Kroszner is a frequent commentator in the international media. He provides advice to financial institutions, government organizations, and central banks throughout the world.

Dr. Kroszner received a Sc.B. (magna cum laude) in applied mathematics-economics (honors) from Brown University in 1984 and an M.A. (1987) and Ph.D. (1990), both in economics, from Harvard University.

Gert Peersman (Speaker)
Senior Full Professor in the Department of Economics, Ghent University
https://research.ugent.be/web/person/gert-peersman-0/en

Senior Full Professor (gewoon hoogleraar), Ghent University, Department of Economics, 2012 – present
• Full Professor (hoogleraar), Ghent University, Department of Economics, 2006 – 2012
• Assistant Professor (docent), Ghent University, Department of Economics, 2003 – 2006
• Economist, Bank of England, International Economic Analysis Division, 2001 – 2003
• Research and teaching assistant, Ghent University, Department of Financial Economics, 1995 – 200

Joost Van Meerbeeck (Moderator) '89
Managing Director, SUSTINVEST
https://www.sustinvest.eu/en

A Belgian national with an MBA of University of Chicago's Booth School (1989), Joost started his career at McKinsey. Among the clients served was HAL Investments, the investment subsidiary of HAL Trust (Euronext Amsterdam quoted, ticker symbol HAL NA), which had just started as an investment company (after the divestment in 1989 of its legacy cruise business Holland America Lines).

Joost joined HAL in 1992 as HAL's 3rd investment professional (after HAL's current Chairman and current CEO). In the 25 years thereafter , the investment group autonomously grew from 600 million USD to 13 billion Euro (2016), realizing a total return (dividends reinvested) of a factor 90x (CAR of around 20%). Joost built out today´s team of around 20 investment professionals and 10 technical staff at HAL Investments in Rotterdam, most of whom have grown to bigger responsibilities within HAL.

In 2011 Joost became CEO of the HAL-subsidiary Royal Ahrend NV (office interiors and furniture) to develop and implement an operational restructuring plan (turnaround), followed by the acquisition and integration of Dutch competitor Gispen (2014-15). Today Ahrend is a +/- 300 M Euro company with +/- 1500 FTE, active in Europe, CEE, former USSR, Middle-East and China. On a comparable basis, EBITDA improved with more than 10M from 2010 to 2015. Joost still serves as non-exec chairman of Ahrend.

In 2016, Joost evolved towards an advisory role at HAL and non-executive board member at a number of HAL subsidiaries and created SUSTINVEST.

Questions

Elke Segers, '01 
President, University of Chicago Alumni Club Belgium