Geert Wellens has written a number of remarkable bestsellers on investing, real estate and finance. He was successively a journalist, publisher and director for the financial-economic publishers Roularta (Trends, Knack, Kanaal Z) and Mediafin (De Tijd, L’Echo). He has also worked for a number of years on the stock market for a major financial institution.

After obtaining his diploma of business engineering from ICHEC, Gregory began his career in financial markets as institutional equity sales specialist, mainly in New York, for both Petercam and Kempen&Co. In 2006 he moved to Private Banking as responsible for the investment and wealth planning departments of UBS Belgium where he later became Executive Committee and Board member, a position that he kept at Puilaetco Dewaay after the takeover of UBS Belgium. Since January 2018, he supports Econopolis in the development of Private Banking activities and new products.

Valérie Coene has a degree in applied economics. She gained experience as an executive secretary and ICT teacher. She provides management support and is responsible for events and Middle Office reporting.

Lise graduated as a Master of Laws at the University of Ghent in 2014, whereafter she chose to specialise in financial law at the University of Glasgow. She started her career as a financial services consultant at a big four consultancy firm, where she focused on data protection and cyber security.
Lise joined Econopolis in March 2018 as a Legal & Regulatory Advisor.

Kristof graduated as a Master of Business Engineering at the University of Antwerp in 2018 (major in Corporate Finance and Financial engineering). In his master thesis, he examined the profitability of a momentum strategy on various government bond markets. Kristof joined the team of Econopolis as a Business Analyst in September 2018, focusing on data management and the follow-up of the latest wealth management technologies.

Thierry François has more than 20 years experience in corporate finance, wealth management and private equity. He qualified as a ‘commercial engineer’ at the Solvay Business School (ULB) and is CFA charterholder. He has built extensive experience working for financial institutions (BNP Paribas Fortis and ING) and families (Korys, the family office of the family Colruyt). Thierry is part of the Econopolis private and institutional wealth management team.

At Econopolis, our content wizard is Joost Houtman. As our communication manager, Joost is in charge of storytelling, content marketing and copywriting, and he is also responsible for drawing up creative communication strategies. As a content marketing consultant, he was/is active at various companies, advertising agencies and production houses. As a journalist, Joost provided content for numerous newspapers and magazines. In addition, he is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books and also operates as a ghost writer.

After obtaining a Master in Engineering at the University of Ghent, Matthieu Jacobs started to work as a consultant. After one year experience, he decided to follow an extra Master in Finance at the Antwerp Management School, after which he joined the Econopolis team in June 2016. Within Econopolis Wealth Management, he is responsible for Operations and closely following the newest technologies.

Fred Janssens obtained a Master’s degree in Applied Economic Sciences at the University of Brussels (VUB) and an additional Master of Finance at the Antwerp Management School. After internships at a large international institution specialised in asset custody and an independent Belgian private bank, Fred joined Econopolis where he led the Middle Office departement for several years. He is currently Compliance Officer of our wealth management activities.

Marc has been active in Financial Markets since 1989 and has as a focus and passion for technology investments. In the last 30 years Marc has worked as Senior Technology Analyst at various investment firms, before switching to become Director of Equity Sales at Petercam. In 2006, Marc and three Petercam colleagues founded Antaurus, active in Asset and Fund Management, where he was responsible for the selection of shares of the successful Antaurus Europe Fund. Marc sold his stake in Antaurus in 2016 and currently works at Econopolis as Technology Fund Manager.

Bob Leysen graduated as a Master in Commercial sciences (Financial Management). He started his career as a financial consultant, and consequently worked at a large bank. There he first served as an investment adviser in the branch network. In 2015 he made the move to private banking, before stepping over to Econopolis. As a Wealth Manager, Bob serves private clients and he is responsible for the Crelan contacts.

Liesbet Loos is a master in Applied Economic Sciences. Before joining Econopolis, she was the manager of several cultural organizations, among which the Cultural Center 'De Velinx' in Tongeren. Liesbet was the operational director of the vzw Rataplan in Antwerp. At Econopolis, she's Office Manager and is responsible for accounting and FSMA reporting.

Cedric Stichelbaut obtained the degree of Master in Applied Economics at the University of Antwerp in June 2017. His master thesis examined the performance of hedge funds after the crisis of 2008. Next he obtained an additional Master of Finance at the Antwerp Management School, where he researched sustainable responsible investing. In the summer of 2018, he joined Econopolis team as a Portfolio Analyst. He assists the Wealth Managers in the management and reporting of the portfolios.

Bernard Thant graduated as master in Commercial Sciences at EHSAL (now known as Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel). Afterwards he completed a one-year postgraduate in Finance and Investment Management. After his studies he joined Société Générale Private Banking Belgium (previously Bank De Maertelaere) where he worked for most of his career as a financial analyst. During that time, he also acted as portfolio manager equities at the same company for a number of years. Bernard joined the Econopolis Wealth Management team in September 2014 as an equity analyst.

For many years Marine Van Reeth is working as an allround administrative assistant in different sectors.
She was working as handling en operations assistant in private aviation and administrative co-worker in the oil sector. In 2014 she took a step to the financial business. Since mid 2016 she joint Econopolis to be responsible for the office management.

Marijn van Zundert obtained a Master in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerp in 2005, followed by a Master in Financial Management from Vlerick in 2008. He became a CFA Charterholder in 2012. Marijn started his career in the financial sector as a consultant in 2005, before moving to private banking in 2010. Within Econopolis Marijn is part of the Wealth Management team for the private and institutional clients as well as for the families.

Gino Delaere is master in Applied Economics (University of Antwerp) and holds an MBA (Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar, India). For over a decade he has been specializing in emerging markets worldwide and traveling the world looking for interesting investment opportunities. Previously he worked for several large asset managers where he was actively involved in several thematically inspired equity funds. Today, as the head of the Econopolis office in Singapore, he spends a significant amount of his time in Asia and Latin America, and is responsible for the stock selection in the emerging markets funds.

Leona Tan Siew Hoon graduated from Indiana University Bloomington, US, majored in Finance and International Business. She started her career as an analyst in a financial-data company in the US. Upon her return to Singapore, she spent a few years in corporate finance before dedicating herself to working as an equity analyst at a brokerage firm in 2004. She joined a large Singaporean asset manager in 2007 and was involved in various roles such as portfolio manager for global and China-India equities funds. She joined Econopolis Singapore Pte Ltd in April 2017 and is responsible for stock selection in the emerging markets funds.

Timothy Verhoest is our General Counsel. He is responsible for legal & compliance and active in the group’s corporate finance activities. He has hands-on experience as a lawyer and assistant professor occupying various functions in the financial sector and the political world, most recently as spokesperson and deputy chief of cabinet of the Minister for Economic Affairs.