Born in Overijse, in Belgium, in 1953. Four children.
Education
Humanitarian Studies, Sint-Jozefs College, Aalst (NL Diploma in Economics, Université Libre de Bruxelles (FR)
Professional experience
May2011 Elected Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation at the Athens Congress
2009-2011 General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (220 affiliates, 110 countries, some 10 million members)
2002-2005 Delegate to the European Economic and Social Committee’s Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI)
1991-2011 General Secretary of the European Trade Union Federation: Textiles, Clothing and Leather(ETUF:TCL)
1985-1991Director of the Institut du Textile et de la Confection de Belgique (ITCB), responsible for dossiers (commercial actions, training, investments) for francophone companies
1981-1985 First Advisor at the ITCB (tripartite body). Examination of dossiers involving investments by textile and clothing enterprises
1980-1981 Advisor to the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister and Budget Minister. Specifically in charge of dossiers involving economic expansion and certain industrial sectors (textile, steel, etc)
1979-1980 Researcher/collaborator at the "Fondation Roi Baudouin". Assisted in editing a study on ‘The economic future of Belgium’
SPIP 2.1.0 [15608] is free software distributed under the GPL license.