André Leysen

André Leysen (11 June 1927 – 11 July 2015) was a Belgian businessman. In 1951, he married Anne Ahlers, daughter of a shipping family from Bremen, Germany. Together they have four children: Bettina, Christian, Thomas, and Sabina.

Career

Main career

From 1952 until 1976 he worked for the shipping company Ahlers N.V., Antwerp (family estate). Since 1974 he is a member of the supervisory board of the Agfa-Gevaert group, (Belgium). From 1978 until 1984 he was a member and chairman of the executive committee of the Agfa Gevaert group, and since 1984 he is chairman of the supervisory board.

In 1976, he was one of the co-founders of the VUM, which took over the newspapers of the Standaard group after its bankruptcy.^[1] He led the VUM until 1978, when his son Thomas took over. From 1990 until 1994 he was a member of the presidency in the board of directors of the Treuhandanstalt in Germany.^[2]

Former positions

• Director of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) (1988 to 1997)
• Vice-Chairman of BMW AG (1997 to 1998)
• Member of Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG (1988 to 1999)
• Vice-Chairman of Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (1983 to 1999)
• Director of Hapag-Lloyd AG (1981 to 1999)
• Director of Bayer AG (until 2002)

Current positions

• Director of Deutsche Telekom AG
• Member of the Supervisory Board of E.on AG
• Director of Schenker AG

Bibliography

• A. Leysen, Krisissen zijn uitdagingen, Lannoo, 1984
• A. Leysen, Achter de spiegel, Terugblik op de oorlogsjaren, Lannoo, 1995
• A. Leysen, Zwerver tussen twee werelden, Reflecties van een maatschappelijk bewogen ondernemer, 2002, Lannoo

Sources

• Jan Bohets, Met weloverwogen lichtzinnigheid, Lannoo (biography).
• Luc Rosenzweig, En Belgique, une mémoire collective divisée, Le Monde, 14 March 1998 (http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-641295,36-658136@51-658124,0.html)