Photo: Eric Chenal
André Roelants was born in 1943 in Schaerbeek, Belgium. His 40-year career has followed a nontraditional route. His dream was to be a sports journalist but his path led him to be the current Chairman of the Board of Clearstream International.
A C A R E E R I N F I V E D AT E S
The career path of André Roelants 1960 – College. At this stage, I decided I had had enough of college and announced that I would quit to earn my own living two years before the end of the programme. The professor gave me a 64-page punishment editorial to write and when I came home, my father was furious! He told me why it was so important to get a university degree, especially for me and I had to be back the next Monday with my 64 pages. If my father had not been there, I would not have learnt this lesson. That put me back on track and allowed me to get a degree in economics at the Faculté Catholique Universitaire de Mons (FUCAM). 1966 – After getting my degree I started 3 years of training in banking. For some time, I already had the idea to embrace finance and banking at Banque Bruxelles Lambert. I started out by being a trainee for 3 years, which was the normal procedure at that time. The landscape was made up of regional and domestic family banks. We were a class of 18 and only one of us was still there five years later. Personally, I joined a regional bank, Crédit Commercial de Mons, where I reached my first management assignment. 1975 – The kick-off for me and “the era of the end”. Banque Belge pour l’Industrie (Empain Schneider Group) hired me to cover banking, marketing
and commercial. My basic training was in credit, but those years gave me the opportunity to cover marketing, corporate banking, operations and IT. For the first time I became member of the Executive Committee at the Royal Bank of Canada Belgium, which acquired 100% of the Bank during this period. The consolidation process continued and after two years in a regional banking institution that was in trouble, Citibank acquired the Bank, and Chase Manhattan Bank asked me to join them. This was the time of investment banking with the development of new finance instruments like derivatives, financial risk management and options/futures. When I was appointed General Manager in Denmark, Chase sold the bank in Belgium which left me without a return ticket. 1988 – My decision was, “let’s go to Lux”. After having been asked to join Chase Investment Bank in London, I decided to come to Luxembourg in 1988 and until 1990, was CEO of Bank of America International Luxembourg. In 1990 the Crédit Communal de Belgique asked me to set up Cregem International Bank and shortly after to move to BIL as CFO after the group acquired the first 25% from GBL with Jean Krier and Michel Tilmant who is still a friend of mine. After one year BIL became majority owned by what became Dexia Group. The bank was in a difficult period and required a turnaround.
1996 – Crisis Management After Jean Krier retired, I was appointed as CEO and succeeded in building a new culture. The BIL developed very successfully within the new Dexia Group where I was part of the Group Executive Committee. In 2001, I was on the board of Cedel and Chairman of the Audit Committee when the so-called “Clearstream Affair” burst out. In May 2001, the Board of Directors asked me to assume the position of Interim CEO of Clearstream International. I left Dexia BIL in July to become President and CEO and later Deputy CEO of the Deutsche Börse Group when the full merger took place. In 2005 I became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Clearstream International. I am still in regular contact with many of my former colleagues. Aside from my professional career, my involvement in social, artistic and sport activities in Luxembourg has been quite intense. I have to confess that I fell in love with this country.
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