Karel Vinck is a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 businessman. In 1994 the readers of the weekly business magazine Trends chose him to be the Manager of the year. He graduated as a Master in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a Dutch-speaking university in Flanders, Belgium.It is located at the centre of the historic town of Leuven, and is a prominent part of the city, home to the university since 1425...

 (Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, Belgium) and got an MBA from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 (Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

).

Career

He started his career at Eternit

Eternit

Eternit is the registered trademark for fibre cement. This has caused fibre cement to be known under the "Eternit" brand. Though, this is not to be confused, "Eternit" is only a trademark for fibre cement....

. Afterwards Karel Vinck was director of Bekaert N.V

Bekaert

N.V. Bekaert S.A. is an industrial company, which is one of the BEL20 companies in the index for the Euronext Brussels stock exchange. The company specializes in advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings...

 from 1985 up to 1994.
In 1995, he started working for Union Minière

Umicore

Umicore N.V. is a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 1989 by the merger of four companies in the mining and smelting industries, Umicore has since reshaped itself into a more technology-focused business encompassing such areas as the refining...

, where he led the restructuring of the company.

He is also a member of the Board of Suez-Tractebel, Tessenderlo Group, of the Catholic University of Leuven

Catholic University of Leuven

The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...

 and of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. He is Co-ordinator of the European Rail Traffic Management System

European Rail Traffic Management System

The European Rail Traffic Management System is an initiative backed by the European Union to enhance cross-border interoperability and signalling procurement by creating a single Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems....

 (ERTMS) with the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

, and chairman of Cumerio

Cumerio

On 17 December 2008, Cumerio and Norddeutsche Affinerie AG became Aurubis - Europe’s biggest copper producer.Cumerio is a copper refining company formed in 2005 by the division of the copper activity of Umicore...

. Karel Vinck is honorary chairman of the Flemish employers association

Voka

Voka is a small borough in Toila Parish, Ida-Viru County in northeastern Estonia....

 (VEV), and Chairman of the Flemish Science Policy Council.

Sources

• Karel Vinck (Umicore)