Vlerick Award

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The Vlerick Award is a Belgian award granted by Vlerick Alumni, the official alumni organisation of Vlerick Business School. The nominees must be Belgian managers with excelling management skills who have achieved sustainable results within an important multinational or organisation from an international perspective.

In 2018, on the occasion of its 65th anniversary, Vlerick Business School organised a special edition of the Vlerick Award. To celebrate this milestone year, it presented two important awards for entrepreneurs in business: the traditional Vlerick Award for an established business personality and a new prize called the Vlerick Venture Award.

The Vlerick Venture Award will be offered to a young, entrepreneurial Vlerick alumna/us whose organisation has delivered growth and made a positive impact on society. A jury, consisting of a small committee of 9 experienced entrepreneurs, investors and experts from the Vlerick faculty (Vlerick's “Entrepreneurs in Residence”) will select the winner of the Vlerick Venture Award.

The Vlerick Award winner on the other hand, remains undecided until the very last moment, as it is the public who decides. Before the event, the public can cast their vote online through the website of Vlerick Alumni. The winner is determined by counting these online votes together with the result of the live voting from the audience during the show.

Three entrepreneurs have been shortlisted in each category, one of whom will go home with the prestigious award:

Nominees Vlerick Venture Award 2018:

Nominees Vlerick Award 2018:

Winner Vlerick Award 2017

Marleen Vaesen won the Vlerick Award 2017 which took place 8 June at Hôtel De La Poste (Tour & Taxis) in Brussels. The audience – who was able to vote both via internet as well as live at the event – chose her, because she led her company as business leader in its market segment with sustained results to the top.

Marleen Vaesen (°1959) was the CEO of Greenyard  [ nl ], a global leader in fresh and prepared fruits and vegetables and growing media. The group has a turnover of around 4 billion euro a year and has over 9,000 employees, of which 2,500 in Belgium. The group is operating in 25 countries, with 23 production sites and 34 distribution centers.

She started her career at Procter and Gamble in 1982 and executed different functions in marketing in Belgium and Europe, strongly driven by her strong interest in consumers.

In 1999, Marleen Vaesen was nominated President at Douwe Egberts Belgium, a subsidiary of Sara Lee. She was responsible for the retail activities, the out-of-home activities and the coffee roasting. She launched Senseo in Belgium, a revolution in the coffee market. In 2004, Marleen was appointed Senior Vice President. She founded the global marketing team and led the change towards a matrix organization with a central, global marketing team. She was responsible for the successful international roll out and growth of the Senseo business and development of innovations. In 2006 she assumed responsibility for the Coffee & Tea business in 8 European countries.

Marleen Vaesen became CEO of Pinguin Lutosa in 2012. [1] Her key focus was on growing the business while strongly improving margins, driving REBITDA from 40 to 60 million euro. In 2015, when Greenyard Foods merged with Univeg and Peltracom, she became CEO of the new group Greenyard, a family business quoted in the stock market. Marleen lead the merger of the 3 companies. She transformed the different companies into 1 integrated group with a common vision, mission and values. The group has five common strategic priorities to drive profitable growth. The strategic proposition of the business is to be the added value partner for retails from fork to field by striving for excellence, day after day.

Marleen Vaesen graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven as Licentiate Applied Economics and obtained an MBA at the University of Chicago and an AMP from Harvard University. She is Director at Van de Velde.

The central theme of the award was "Beyond Excellence". All the nominees boast so much more than merely everyday operational business skills. They excel both at international and strategic level. The nominees that year were (in alphabetical order):

Winner Vlerick Award 2016

Françoise Chombar (CEO of Melexis) was chosen as the winner of the Vlerick Award 2016, [2] which took place on Thursday 2 June 2016 at Hotel Le Plaza in Brussels. It’s the first time that a female CEO took the prestigious award home.

Ms Chombar is the co-founder of the chip manufacturer Melexis and has been the CEO for 12 years. Before that she had been the COO of the company for 6 years. Although her contribution to the company cannot be trivialised, she attributes its success to her team which counts 900 employees world-wide. Ms Chombar was chosen via live-voting by an audience of more than 300 participants in combination with the online voting beforehand. She was up against some tough competition: the other nominees were Ms Ann and Mr Bart Claes of the Belgian clothing retailer JBC and Mr Rudi Pauwels of the biotech company Biocartis. Mr Domb, CEO of Pairi Daiza, unfortunately wasn't able to compete for the Award due to the birth of a baby giant panda cub at Pairi Daiza.

The theme for the award in 2016 was "Legacy and Promise: Building on yesterday, heading into tomorrow". The nominees that year were (in alphabetical order):

Winner Vlerick Award 2015

On 4 June 2015 at Hotel Le Plaza, Brussels, the 15th Vlerick Award was granted to Alain Bernard, CEO of DEME. The audience – who was able to vote both via internet as well as live at the event – chose him, because he led his company as business leader in its market segment with sustained results to the top.

The theme of 2015 was ‘Legacy & Promise’: each of the nominees leads a company with a rich past and strong legacy that has to be defended, while also facing pressure to develop and grow the business still further, thereby realising the promise of the future.

The other nominees for 2015 were (in alphabetical order):

Winner Vlerick Award 2014

Michel Moortgat  [ nl ], CEO of Duvel Moortgat Brewery, won the Vlerick Award 2014. The audience chose Michel Moortgat.

Almost 400 alumni, former winners and nominees, and VIPs attended the 14th Vlerick Award that took place on Wednesday June 4 at Hotel Le Plaza in Brussels. The other nominees were:

The 2014 edition was especially devoted to the changes which the 4 nominees not only had welcomed but moreover realised in their business.

Laureates Vlerick Award

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References

  1. ↑ "Hein Deprez schuift Marleen Vaesen opzij bij Greenyard". De Tijd . 29 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "Join the Vlerick Award 2016!". www.vlerick.com.

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