André Leysen
 André Leysen    (businessman) | |
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| Born | 11 June 1927 |
| Died | 11 July 2015 (Age 88) |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Alma mater | Reichsführerschule Potsdam |
| Children | • Thomas Leysen • Christian Leysen |
| Spouse | Anne Ahlers |
| Member of | European Round Table of Industrialists, Trilateral Commission |
Tribilderberger TLC member. Son is member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.
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André Leysen was a Belgian (Flemish) business executive with deep ties to Germany, and chairman of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises.
He attended 3 Bilderberg meetings in the 1980s, and was a member of the Trilateral Commission. His son, Thomas Leysen was member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.
Background
André Leysen came from a Flemish entrepreneurial family that co-owned the 'General Wiper Company', a producer of industrial cleaning materials. During the Second World War, the German army was an important customer of this firm. Through this economic collaboration and the radical Flemish nationalism of his parents, André Leysen became a member of the Hitler Youth-Flanders in 1943.
During the war, he transferred from the Antwerp Sint-Lievens College to the Deutsche Schule, also located in Antwerp, where he met his later wife Anne Ahlers. Soon after, he was selected to receive an education at the elite Reichsführerschule in Potsdam. In September 1944 he fled to Germany where he became assistant to the chairman of the Flemish national leadership René Lagrou. He also witnessed the destruction of the Allied bombing of Dresden. In that turbulent period he also met the priest Cyriel Verschaeve.[1]
After the war, as an 18-year-old, he was imprisoned for four months in Hemiksem Abbey, awaiting trial before the juvenile court. He came out with a warning. His wartime background made it impossible for him to continue his studies after the war. He distanced himself from National Socialism and his family's war history after the war.[1]
Career
On 23 August 1951 André Leysen married Anne Ahlers, daughter of the Antwerp/Bremen-based German shipping agent Herwig Ahlers. This family business was further developed into a leading shipping company after its re-foundation in the same year under the leadership of Leysen. After the sale of Ahlers, Leysen participated in the German-Belgian group Agfa-Gevaert. In 1979, he assumed the chairmanship of this group. With the proceeds from the sale of his shares in Agfa-Gevaert to the German Bayer, he founded the investment company Gevaert NV in 1981. Later he would house this group with the Belgian holding company Almanij.
In 1976 he saved the defunct the newspaper group De Standaard. In the 1980s, he was chairman of the employers' federation Federation of Belgian Enterprises (VBO) and was known as inspiring the austerity measures of the then Wilfried Martens cabinet.
He was a member of the European Round Table of Industrialists. He held directorships at major companies such as Bayer, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bank, Hapag-Lloyd and Philips. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he became the only foreigner to join the Treuhandanstalt, charged with the privatization of the East German state-owned enterprises.
In 1999 he suffered a heavy financial loss with his Gevaert holding after the bankruptcy of the German construction company Holzmann. It was, in his own words, the biggest failure of his career.
Leysen's two sons hold top positions in important companies. Christian Leysen, VLD politician, and Antwerp digital Mainport and Thomas Leysen who is managing director of Umicore (the former Union Minière).
André Leysen died on 11 July 2015. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for twenty years.[2]
