Bart Verhaeghe, President of Club Brugge Bart Verhaeghe ( pronounce [ ˈbɑrt fərˈɦaːɣə ] ), [ 1 ] ( born in 1965 ) is a belgian entrepreneur. He became president of Club Brugge in 2011 [ 2 ] and one year late he became the majority stockholder. He is besides president of plan developer UPLACE and former vice-chairman of the Royal Belgian Football Association. He besides co-founded the independent think tank Itinera in 2006. Verhaeghe encourages entrepreneurship, among other things, with his passionate plea for more ambition and courage in our club. That ‘s the key message in his book ‘Durf ! ’ [ 3 ] ( Dare ! ) which was published by Van Halewyck in 2019.

early life [edit ]

Verhaeghe was born into a Brabant syndicate with West Flemish roots ( father from Stuivekenskerke and mother from Ardooie ). He grew up in Grimbergen and played soccer at KSC Grimbergen and Hoger Op Merchtem. After junior-grade school at the Jan van Ruusbroeck College in Laken, he studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven and obtained a Master of Business Administration at Vlerick Business School. He started his career at KPMG, one of the Big Four report organizations. He resigned after nine months to start as an entrepreneur. At industrial building company Verelst, he developed project developer Eurinpro speciate in logistic real estate of the realm and of which he became CEO. This company grew substantially and was sold in 2006 to the australian party Macquarie Goodman for 400 million Euro .

LakeSprings [edit ]

Verhaeghe invests in sports ( Club Brugge ), substantial estate ( plan development and real estate investments ), individual equity, listed shares and non-profit organisations ( Itinera and the Anti-Cancer Fund ). These investments are separate of the family holding LakeSprings nevada. As real estate investment, Verhaeghe bought the Castle of Bever from Count Eric de Villegas de Clercamp in 2004. The castle has been in full renovated and is surrounded by roughly 20 hectares of park area .

actual Estate : Verelst, Eurinpro and Uplace [edit ]

In 1992 Verhaeghe took his foremost steps in substantial estate of the realm when he met building contractor Luc Verelst. He acquired a stake in the industrial build company Verelst, from which Eurinpro late emerged. This company grew into a ball-shaped musician in logistic veridical estate. Verhaeghe besides set up two real estate funds, Siref and Retail Estates. He used these investment companies to list his retail property and semi-industrial place on the stock market. In 2006, Eurinpro was sold to the australian company Macquarie Goodman for 400 million Euro Verhaeghe then set up the veridical estate company Uplace, specialised in developing innovative projects where living, working and relaxing go together. Near Brussels, Uplace develops a raw workshop district called BROEKLIN, where train, product, consumption and circularity meet at a very cardinal location in Belgium. The work shop district is designed by Professor and architect Alexander D ’ Hooghe .

Club Brugge [edit ]

In 2004, at the request of the flemish politics, Verhaeghe developed a feasibility study for schools and football stadiums. subsequently, he was contacted by the then board of Club Brugge, which developed plans for a modern stadium. Verhaeghe additionally developed a strategic sight for the first division. At the request of the dining table of directors at the time, Verhaeghe implemented the internal changes, became chair and hired Vincent Mannaert to become CEO of Club Brugge. Mannaert leads the operational operations of Club, supported by a professional management team. The Board of Directors was besides subject to major changes : several entrepreneurs made their entry. At the end of 2012, the trade fund of the non-profit association Club Brugge K.V. was transferred to the limited indebtedness company Club Brugge, to which an come of 15 million euro was contributed. Verhaeghe became the majority stockholder. Under Verhaeghe and Mannaert, Club Brugge grew to become one of Belgium ‘s top clubs. From 2014 to 2020, it achieved the best results of all clubs in the Jupiler Pro League. During this time period, it won the most games in regular contest ( 5 times ), the most backing titles ( 4 ), it played two cup finals in which Club won one. In the lapp season, Club Brugge won 2 Super cup and besides walked aside with the most individual prizes ( 26 ). At the European level, over the last five years Club has played four times in the Champions League group phase. [ 4 ]

Verhaeghe saw turnover grow from 43 million Euro to 137 million Euro over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020. Over this time, Verhaeghe was working, alongside the politics, on plans for a newfangled stadium for Club, a job that was complicated by legal appeals. At the beginning of 2020, the City of Bruges and the Board of Directors of Club Brugge announced that there are plans to build the modern stadium on the current Olympia site. Club Brugge will build the stadium with its own means, the city will grant a long terminus land lease for the habit of the grounds. angstrom soon as the new stadium is ready ( ’22-’23 season ), the current Jan Breydel stadium can be demolished. The Club Brugge train complex, Belfius basecamp in Westkapelle ( Knokke ), has already been realised. The first stone was laid on 12 September 2018. Ten months late the first-team team formally took mansion. Club Brugge announced its purpose to float on Euronext Brussels [ 5 ] on March the 3rd, 2021. Three weeks later, Club Brugge postponed of its initial public offer in light of marketplace conditions. Four months late, on July 2nd, Club Brugge strengthened its ownership structure for future growth, [ 6 ] with the introduction of a new stockholder : Orkila Capital. As a growth fairness investing fund with 15 years experience in sports, media, entertainment and consumer markets in Europe and the US, Orkila Capital will help Club Brugge to far flourish in the fields of marketing digitalization, intellectual property and content development and direct-to-consumer business strategies. Orkila Capital is providing a capital addition of 20 million € in Club Brugge ’ s far growth as a team and brand vitamin a well as acquiring shares from the existing shareholders for an measure of 30 million €. as a leave, Grizzly Sports NV ( with major stockholder Bart Verhaeghe ) will hold 71.89 % of the Club Brugge shares and Orkila Capital will hold 23,26 % of the Club Brugge shares. Club Brugge is this year ‘s best football & Community team of the Jupiler Pro League. The club received this honor by a jury of independent experts for its social club activities and the efforts of the Club Brugge Foundation during the past season. It ‘s the fourth Pro League award in seven years for the Club Brugge Foundation after former awards in 2015, 2016 and 2018. last season the Club Brugge Foundation received international praise with the project ‘The Bear and his Scarf ‘ and won the ‘More than Football Award ‘ in November from the European Football for Development Netwerk [ 7 ] and the ‘Professional Club – Community Award ‘ at the International Sports Awards in December .
In 2013, the Pro League delegated Verhaeghe to the Executive Committee of the RBFA. Three years late he took up the position of director and became Vice Chairman. together with former chair Gérard Linard, Verhaeghe reorganised the association which made a loss of 8 million Euro in 2016, into a financially goodly federation. Verhaeghe and Linard rolled out a code of ethics for all RBFA employees and partners. The rules of good administration were adopted with a professional management team that, under the leadership of CEO Peter Bossaert, was given the keys to manage the functional management of the RBFA. Verhaeghe was besides president of the Technical Committee. together with Mehdi Bayat and Chris Van Puyvelde he appointed Roberto Martínez as national coach. Verhaeghe was mind of delegating at the World Cup in Russia where the Red Devils won bronze. In June 2019, Verhaeghe resigned from the RBFA so that he could focus on Club Brugge and his other master activities .
In 2018, Verhaeghe and Linard extended the abridge of national passenger car Roberto Martínez

Books [edit ]

  • Zeg niet aan mijn moeder dat ik ondernemer ben…ze denkt dat ik op zoek ben naar een job, 2003. (Don’t tell my mother I’m an entrepreneur, she thinks I’m looking for a job)
  • Durf! Pleidooi voor meer ambitie en lef, 2019 (Dare! A plea for more ambition and courage)

Durf ! ( Dare ! ), by Bart Verhaeghe

References [edit ]