Georges Ugeux

Georges Ugeux is a dual citizen of Belgium, his native country, and the United States,[1] and was Group Executive Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange from 1996 to 2003. His banking career began in the 1970s in Europe, and he is currently the CEO of Galileo Global Advisors, a New York-based investment bank catering to emerging markets. He is a notable member of the Belgian diaspora, due to his influence in the world of international finance.[2] He is a frequent public speaker[3] and an op-ed contributor to the Huffington Post.

Early life

Born in 1945 in Belgium, Ugeux's upbringing was both Walloon and Flemish.[4] In the late 1960s he studied at Université catholique de Louvain, graduating in Economics and Doctor of Law. He told the newspaper Le Soir in 1995 that, at that time, he had been deeply troubled by the language feud known as Walen Buiten, and, consequently, he embraced the European ideal.[4]

Career

Georges Ugeux began his financial career in 1970 at Société Générale de Banque, headquartered in Brussels, rising to the position of head of the investment banking and trust division. In 1985, he served as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley's mergers and acquisitions in London.

In 1988, he was appointed Group Finance Director at Société Générale de Belgique. In 1992, he became President and Managing Director of Kidder, Peabody & Co. for Europe. In this role, he advises governments on privatization programs.[5][6] He began serving as President of the European Investment Fund in June 1994.[7] In 1995, he takes the helm of an organization, under the authority of Belgium's ministry of finance, that, as part of a privatization program that began in 1992, makes an inventory of government assets to be sold.[8][9][10]

Georges Ugeux joined the New York Stock Exchange in September 1996, as Group Executive Vice President, International & Research, a financial news outlet labeling him "the face of the New York Stock Exchange outside of the United States".[11]

In 2003, he resigned amidst the NYSE compensation controversy. He claimed it was a coincidence because he had planned his departure in order to start a business, and defended his record as follows : "the NYSE listed 300 non-U.S. companies with a value of $2.7 trillion".[11][12]

In 2003, Georges Ugeux founded an investment banking advisory firm, Galileo Global Advisors, and, since then, has been its CEO. The company caters primarily, but not exclusively, to Asian clients, such as the Guangzhou municipality.[13]

In the wake of the 2009 legal fallout of Fortis, a Belgian financial services conglomerate, Georges Ugeux pursued the chairmanship of its board,[14] but rapidly abandoned it due to a deadlock in the negotiations between the different parties.

In 2011, Georges Ugeux' company joined the Institute of International Finance, which he doesn't see as banking lobby,[15] and he was involved in the negotiations on Greece's debt restructuring, a saga that crystallized tensions in the Euro zone.[16][17][18]

Writing

Georges Ugeux is a regular blog author for the Huffington Post and the author of a Le Monde blog, Démystifier la Finance, Ethiques et Marchés. In the second half of 2011, his blog rose to the heights of popularity, in its category,[19] while its coverage focused on Greece's debt restructuring, the negotiations of which Georges Ugeux was privy to (see section on Career), and its deleterious effects on the eurozone.[17][18] Sometimes, his writing contains vitriolic rhetoric: "In his Le Monde blog, Georges Ugeux asks if the French president is in reality the president of the French banks",[20] reported Eurointelligence in October 2011.

Financial crisis

Georges Ugeux, who had promoted the NYSE's self-regulatory organization internationally as a senior official of the exchange,[21] later deplored the "magistral failure" brought upon by the myth of auto-regulation in the financial sector, in 2009.[3] This view is developed in a book published in 2010, The betrayal of finance: twelve reforms to restore confidence.,[bib 1] available in Dutch, English (2011) and French.

Eurozone debt crisis

Georges Ugeux stands in stark opposition to the claim of economists such as Paul Krugman (whom he accuses of making bold predictions out of concern for his own image[22]) that Greece leaving the Eurozone, a topical issue in the middle of 2012,[23] would have a net benefit for the country's economy. His reasoning is that the gains from a devaluation of the Greek drachma would be offset by the corresponding increase in the relative value of the outstanding debt in Euro (issued before the currency switch), whether public or private.[22]

Other

Bibliography
  1. Ugeux, Georges. The betrayal of finance: twelve reforms to restore confidence. Archived from the original on 2016-03-26.

References
  1. "Le carnet d'adresse planétaire de Georges Ugeux". Le Vif. February 2011.
  2. "Inaugural Summit of European Diasporas, Thessaloniki, 19–21 June 2003". June 2003.
  3. "La crise signe l'échec magistral de l'autorégulation" (PDF). APCO. February 2009.
  4. "Qu'avez vous fait de vos 20 ans? Georges Ugeux avait 20 ans en 1965 marqué à vie par le Walen Buiten". lesoir.be. August 1995. Or je me sentais autant francophone que flamand : je suis tout à fait bilingue et ma famille est d'origine tant wallonne que flamande.
  5. "Le défi des marchés financiers, Georges Ugeux: je me donne trois ans pour réussir" [The challenge of financial markets, Georges Ugeux wants to succeed in three years]. lesoir.be (in French). 1992.
  6. "Le regard de Georges Ugeux... privatiser c'est facile. Après il faudra innover Belgacom: le marché attend une stratégie claire..." [Georges Ugeux's point of view... privatizing is easy. After, Belgacom will have to innovate: the market expects a clear strategy]. lesoir.be (in French). 1994. Kidder Peabody est en effet l'une de ces institutions qui proposent leur savoir-faire ès-privatisations sur tous les continents. Notamment en Belgique, où Georges Ugeux vient de présenter ses offres de service au ministère des Communications pour la future privatisation de Belgacom.
  7. "New President of European Investment Fund". Europolitics. June 1996. Archived from the original on 2012-07-30.
  8. "L'absence d'encadrement juridique spécifique des privatisations" (in French). CRISP (Center for socio-political research and information). 2001. La première étape fut l'arrêté royal du 8 Octobre 1992 qui institua auprès du Ministre des Finances la Commission d'évaluations des actifs d'états ... La Commission doit soumettre à l'opprobation du Ministre des Finances la liste des actifs de l'État susceptibles d'être vendus...
  9. "Le président Henrion souhaite quitter sa tâche pour raisons personnelles - Ugeux, nouveau privatiseur belge?" [President Henrion quits for personal reasons]. lesoir.be (in French). 1995. La Commission d'évaluation des actifs de l'Etat, dite «Commission des privatisations » parce qu'elle est chargée de conseiller l'Etat belge en cette matière, va connaître son quatrième président en à peine deux ans et demi.
  10. "Georges Ugeux, le démarcheur du NYSE" [Georges Ugeux, the NYSE's international representative]. lesoir.be (in French). 1997. Georges Ugeux, familier des cercles du pouvoir en Belgique - il présida par exemple aux efforts de privatisations du gouvernement Dehaene, aux commandes de la Commission d'évaluation des actifs de l'Etat …
  11. "International chief Georges Ugeux resigns from NYSE". marketwatch.com. September 2003.
  12. "Third senior NYSE official resigns". Bloomberg. September 2003.
  13. "China". Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
  14. "Fortis leaves battle over chairmanship to shareholders". flanderstoday.eu. January 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-08-23.
  15. "Grèce : une négociation périlleuse qui doit aboutir" [Greece: a high stake, difficult, negotiation]. finance.blog.lemonde.fr (in French). January 2012. Quels que soient les principes, l'International Institute of Finance (qui n'est pas un lobby) a eu raison de fédérer les institutions financières privées
  16. "IIF 2010 Annual Report". Institute of International Finance.
  17. "Le sauvetage grec risque-t-il d'échouer?". finance.blog.lemonde.fr. September 2009.
  18. "The European Agreement Offers Other People's Money". Huffington Post. October 2011.
  19. http://labs.ebuzzing.fr/top-blogs/source/finance.blog.lemonde.fr-O9OA/stats
  20. "Towards another agreement that won't solve the crisis". Eurointelligence. October 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-01-23.
  21. "'NYSE listing is a seal of approval' — Mr Georges Ugeux, NYSE". The Hindu Business Line. May 2002.
  22. "La Grèce restera dans l'Europe et dans l'Eurozone" [Greece will remain in Europe and in the Eurozone]. finance.blog.lemonde.fr (in French). 2012. Quand l'économie est entièrement exprimée en Euro, l'abandon de cette devise, si elle a des avantages, a aussi un inconvénient majeur : toutes les dettes sont exprimées en Euros. Une baisse de la drachme aurait pour conséquence d'accroitre l'endettement des ménages, des entreprises et de l'Etat hellénique. ... Quant au Nobellissime Paul Krugman, sa prévision de la sortie grecque de l'Euro dans un délai qui pourrait être d'un mois a une fois de plus démontré que la vedette lui sied mieux que le sérieux.
  23. "Greece's exit from euro zone not a foregone conclusion". theglobeandmail.com. 2012.
  24. "Georges Ugeux".
  25. "APCO Amps Up Global Financial Expertise With Three New Execs". Bulldog Reporter. March 2011.
  26. "Board of directors of British American Business, Inc". Archived from the original on 2010-01-12.
  27. "International Advisory Board Oxford Analytica". Archived from the original on 2009-03-06.
  28. "Foreigners chosen to promote FDI in Korea". Korea JoongAng Daily. 2010. Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2012-01-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  29. "Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society".
  30. "Ordres nationaux Ordre de Léopold". etaamb.be.
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