Ivan De Witte

Last updated April 10, 2019

Ivan De Witte (Moortsele, 1947) is a Belgian entrepreneur and soccer executive. As of June 2015^[update], he is CEO of the Belgian department of the HR company Hudson Benelux. Since 1999, he is also the director of football team AA Gent.

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,688 square kilometres (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.4 million. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal.

Biography

Ivan De Witte was born in 1947 in the Moortsele. His parents were the owners of a charcuterie house. Later on, the family moved to Merelbeke. De Witte studied classical studies at the Sint-Lievenscollege in Ghent and got a certificate in business psychology at the Ghent University. Once he finished his studies, he worked a year as an assistant of the university. Since his teens, De Witte has played soccer at the amateur level.

Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.

Merelbeke is a municipality located in the Flemish province of East Flanders, in Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Bottelare, Lemberge, Melsen, Merelbeke proper, Munte and Schelderode. On January 1, 2006, Merelbeke had a total population of 22,353. The total area is 36.65 km² which gives a population density of 610 inhabitants per km².

Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. It encompasses the study of the Greco-Roman world, particularly of its languages and literature but also of Greco-Roman philosophy, history, and archaeology. Traditionally in the West, the study of the Greek and Roman classics was considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities and a fundamental element of a rounded education. The study of classics has therefore traditionally been a cornerstone of a typical elite education.

Career

Entrepreneur and businessman

De Witte served on the Board of Directors of the Ghent steel company Sidmar for ten years, during which he met fellow worker Maarten Morel. In 1982, they left Sidmar and founded De Witte & Morel, a company that was specialised in human resources management.^[1] In 1995, the consultancy company was acquired as a subsidiary by Ernst & Young. De Witte remained delegate director in the new organisational structure of the Ghent company. Six years later, De Witte & Morel was sold to TMP Worldwide. In 2003, the company merged with the American group Hudson Highland. Five years later, it changed its name to Hudson Belgium.^[2] Since 2008, De Witte has been CEO of Hudson Benelux.

Ernst & Young is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, England, United Kingdom. EY is one of the largest professional services firms in the world and is one of the "Big Four" accounting firms.

Soccer executive

De Witte started as a managing director of the football team AA Gent during the 1990s. In advance of the 1999/2000-season, he succeeded Jean Van Milders as president of the team.^[3] Together with manager Michel Louwagie, he worked to resolve AA Gent's €23 million debt, succeeding in January 2013.^[4] Two years earlier, the team had started the building of a new stadium. As from the season 2013/14, AA Gent plays in the modern Ghelamco Arena.

Jean Van Milders was a Belgian businessman and the president of soccer team AA Gent for ten years.

Michel Louwagie is a Belgian sports manager. He is the manager and technical director of AA Gent. As from 1998, he is the president of the Belgian Swimming Federation.

The euro is the official currency of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union. This group of states is known as the eurozone or euro area, and counts about 343 million citizens as of 2019. The euro is the second largest and second most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar. The euro is subdivided into 100 cents.

In 2007, De Witte was also the president of the Pro League, succeeding Jean-Marie Philips. In the time De Witte was president, the Belgian competition was renamed in Jupiler Pro League and play-offs were set up. De Witte left the Pro League in 2011 and was succeeded by Ronny Verhelst.

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Ghent is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the second largest municipality in Belgium, after Antwerp. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city.

Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent, often simply known as Ghent or by their nickname De Buffalo's, is a Belgian football, track and field and field hockey club, based in the city of Ghent, East Flanders. Their football team have been playing in the Belgian Pro League since the 1989–90 season. They won the national league once, in 2014–15, in addition to three Belgian Cup victories. Ghent played their home matches in the Jules Ottenstadion in Gentbrugge from 1920 until 2013, when they moved to the Ghelamco Arena. Their team colours are blue and white. The principal sponsor is the financial institution VDK NV.

Gent–Wevelgem, officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields, is a road cycling race in Belgium, held annually since 1934. It one of the classic races part of the Flemish Cycling Week, run in late March on the last Sunday before the Tour of Flanders.

The Ghelamco Arena is a multi-use stadium in Ghent, Belgium. It hosts the home matches of football club K.A.A. Gent and was officially opened on July 17, 2013, making it the first new-built Belgian football stadium since 1974.

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ArcelorMittal Ghent is a Belgian steelworks situated in Ghent near Zelzate, Flanders. It was founded in 1962 by ARBED as Sidmar; the first maritime steel producer in Belgium.

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The 2017–18 Belgian First Division A was the 115th season of top-tier football in Belgium. The season began on 28 July 2017 and concluded on 20 May 2018. The fixtures were announced in early June 2017. Anderlecht were the defending champions but had to settle for third place with Club Brugge taking their 15th title.

The sixth edition of Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields was held on Sunday 26 March 2016. It was the women's event of Gent–Wevelgem cycling race, held in Belgium. It was the fourth race of the 2017 UCI Women's World Tour season.

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Elien Van Wynendaele is a Belgian soccer defender who plays for AA Gent of Super League Vrouwenvoetbal.

References

↑ "Waarden en cultuur van de aandeelhouders bepalen alles" Ondernemers, maart 2009
↑ Hudson vervangt De Witte & Morel De Standaard, 6 November 2007
↑ We nemen stilaan afscheid van het Ottenstadion... Archived 2015-02-09 at the Wayback Machine .Wigwam Magazine, September 2012
↑ AA Gent is helemaal schuldenvrij Voetbalbelgië.be, 30 January 2013

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[1] "Waarden en cultuur van de aandeelhouders bepalen alles" Ondernemers, maart 2009

[2] Hudson vervangt De Witte & Morel De Standaard, 6 November 2007

[3] We nemen stilaan afscheid van het Ottenstadion... Archived 2015-02-09 at the Wayback Machine .Wigwam Magazine, September 2012

[4] AA Gent is helemaal schuldenvrij Voetbalbelgië.be, 30 January 2013