Ferdinand Chafart
 Ferdinand Chafart    (businessman) | |
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| Born | February 5, 1936 Deurne |
| Died | February 22, 2010 (Age 74) Tienen |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Alma mater | Stanford University |
Belgian manager who held senior positions in many Belgian companies
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Ferdinand "Fred" Chaffart was a Belgian manager who held senior positions in many Belgian companies[1][2]. He was also President of the European League of Economic Cooperation.
Education
Fred Chaffart studied commercial and consular sciences at the Rijkshandelshogeschool in Antwerp and followed a Senior Executive Program at Stanford University in the United States.
Career
He started his career in the family business, a paint company. Afterwards he started working as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and commercial director of the bank Ippa (AXA). In 1979 he moved to the sugar company Tiense Suiker, where he became CEO. In 1989 the company from Tienen was sold and Chaffart became CEO of cement group CBR. In 1992 he became chairman of the executive committee of the Generale Bank. In 1998 Chaffart was in favor of the merger of the Generale Bank with ABN AMRO. However, main shareholder Suez opted for a takeover by Fortis, after which Chaffart and the management committee resigned.
During the dioxin crisis[3] in 1999, he was appointed "dioxin commissioner" by the Dehaene II government.
He was best known for his position as the last president of the previously ailing airline Sabena. He became chairman of Sabena in April 2001, succeeding Valère Croes and in November 2001 he had to declare bankruptcy.
He also held board positions at image processing group Agfa-Gevaert, technology company Icos Visions Systems, mineral water producer Spadel and the Vlaamse Uitgeversmaatschappij ( Corelio ). He was also chairman of the University of Antwerp Management School and director of the Research Foundation - Flanders.
