Alain Deneef
Alain Deneef (born March 26, 1960) is a Belgian entrepreneur, urban expert and coalition builder. He is currently intendant of Brussels Metropolitan [1], a Belgian employers’ coalition at federal (Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB-VBO)) and regional (fr: Brussels Entreprises Commerce and Industry (BECI), fr: VOKA and fr: Union wallonne des entreprises (UWE)) levels.
As an expert in urban issues and civil society, he is the founder and president of Aula Magna [2], a Brussels based think-tank created in 2005. He helped to launch and coordinate in 2008 the Citizen’s Forum of Brussels, a unique effort in mobilising civil society around the future of Brussels. This endeavour won the Flemish nl: Prijs voor de Democratie in July 2010. Within Aula Magna he organized the first Brussels Citizens University (2010). Three Brussels Summer Universities have followed since then on a yearly basis.
As businessman, he has held top management positions in Canal+ Belgium (now BeTV (Belgium)), Belgacom and the SNCB - the Belgian railway company, among others, and several positions as director in BT Belgium[3], CIT Blaton [4] and Carmeuse.
Currently a strategic consultant, he helps medium and large organizations foresee the impact of technological, financial, social, demographic, environmental, urban and political change on their future.
He founded a publishing company, Prosopon Editions, which published the “Dictionnaire d’Histoire de Bruxelles” and whose mission is to collect biographical data and store them in “state of the art” databases.
He has served as president of a number of clubs and associations amongst which the Alumni association of the fr: Collège Saint-Michel (Bruxelles). Since August 2013, he is the president of the World Union of Jesuit Alumni (WUJA [5]). He was also president of the Brussels chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and is currently a member of the World Presidents’ Organizsation (WPO [6]).
He is also a member of the Consultative Council of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. He is the Executive Officer of the European Quarter Fund [7], a corporate fund managed by the King Baudouin Foundation, which acts as a bridge between public and private actors in the European Quarter in Brussels. Closely linked to the later, he is also involved as president in the European Quarter Area Management Association (EQuAMA [8]), which endeavors to animate public spaces and to create events in this area of Brussels. He is further a director of the Brussels Studies Institute [9].
He was educated at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he obtained the degrees of Business Engineer (Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management) and Law and Philosophy (1984). He is currently finalizing a Master in History at the same university.
He is fluent in French, Dutch and English. He lives in Ixelles (Brussels Region).
References
- On Brussels Metropolitan: Article in La Libre
- On urban issues: Interview in Brussel Deze Week
- On BSU: Interview on Télé-Bruxelles
- On the new Brussels civil’s society: Publication on "Le nouveau mouvement bruxellois"
- On the jesuits in Brussels and in the world: Interview on Télé-Bruxelles