Gaston Deurinck

Gaston Deurinck  (engineer, economist)
Born	1922 Belgium
Died	2000 (Age 78)
Nationality	Belgian
Alma mater	University of Louvain, UCLA
Relatives	Paul Vanden Boeynants
Engineer who founded the Belgian Productivity Centre. Attended the 1970 Bilderberg.

Gaston Deurinck founded the Belgian Productivity Centre.

Activities

Gaston Deurinck (1922-2000), a young civil engineer freshly graduated from the University of Louvain/Leuven in 1947, was advised by one of the most influential industrialists, René Boël, to pursue his studies in the USA in order to compare the levels of productivity between the two countries. His M.A. in Economics focused on the problem of measuring productivity statistically, and benefited from the assistance of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Back in Belgium, Deurinck could not convince the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the usefulness of his work, although its General Secretary, Jean-Charles Snoy, had also studied at Harvard with BAEF in 1930. However, Deurinck was finally hired by the Federation of Belgian Industrialists (FIB), where he started to collect information from various factories. At the same time, American delegates were fostering the creation of national productivity centres throughout Europe under the Benton-Moody Amendment; eleven countries (of the sixteen which received Marshall Aid) were about to have their own in the autumn of 1950. That was the case in Belgium, as Deurinck managed to organise the Belgian Productivity Centre (CBP) within the framework of the FIB. Despite strong American recommendations, it did not integrate unions in its structure, and although it aimed to fulfill all the objectives assigned to a traditional productivity centre, the CBP did not benefit from ECA funds. Under the threat of bankruptcy and after a year of prevarication, the employers finally agreed to operate on a joint basis with union representatives. A new name was chosen, the Belgian Office for the Increase of Productivity (OBAP), while US consultant teams were brought in to assess whether Deurinck was capable of maneuvering the whole enterprise.

Family

His sister married Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1941. He later became prime minister.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1970	17 April 1970	19 April 1970	Switzerland Hotel Quellenhof Bad Ragaz	the 19th Bilderberg meeting, in Switzerland.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

This is a page stub. Please add to it.