FRANCOIS-XAVIER DE DONNEA
BORN in Edegem, Belgium, on April 29, 1941.
NATIONALITY : Belgian.
MARRIED to Yolaine de Villegas, Belgian citizen
UNIVERSITY DEGREES.
Bachelor of Economics and of Applied Economics (U. of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium).
MBA (U. of California, Berkeley).
Ph.D. in Economics (Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam).
LANGUAGES SPOKEN.
French, Dutch, English, Spanish; passive knowledge of German.
PRESENT FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITIES.
Minister of State (Member of the Crown Council);
Honorary Member of the Belgian House of Representatives;
Honorary Senator
Chairman of the conciliation and arbitration committee of the MR
Chairman of the Royal Institute for International Relations – Egmont (Belgium);
Member of the Strategic Council of the « Université Saint Joseph », Beyrouth, Lebanon;
Member of the Board of the Virunga Foundation (UK ) http://www.virunga.org
Managing Director of Virunga SPRL (Belgium) and of Virunga Enzymes sarl (DR Congo)
Chairman of the Belgian Virunga Fund ASBL
Chairman of the African Parks Congo asbl (DR of Congo)
Professor Emeritus of the University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
Vice-Chairman of CREA-AC, Center of expertise and dialogue on Central Africa.
PAST PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Professor at the University of Louvain- Economics and Public Management (1971-1997)
Member of the Belgian Parliament (1981-1989; 1991-2000; 2003-2014).
Member of the European Parliament (1989-1991) .
Secretary of State for Development Cooperation (1983-1985).
Minister of Defense (1985-1988).
Mayor of the City of Brussels (1995-2000).
Minister-President of the Brussels- Capital Region, also in charge of Scientific Research (2000-2003).
President of the EU Council of Ministers on Research during the Belgian Presidency (July-December 2001) .
Former President of the Sahel and West Africa Club (OCDE); http://www.oecd.org/SWAC (2009-2018);
Belgium Congo Basin Forest Partnership Facilitator (2018 – 2019)
Chairman of Integrale S.A. (from 1/10/2016 to 29/2/2020).
Former Chairman of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development Belgium –FRDO (2019-2023) .