Georges
Ugeux
Former president of the European Investment Fund; former head of the international group of the New York Stock Exchange
Areas of Expertise:
# Financial
# Government
# Nonprofit
For more than 40 years, Georges Ugeux has focused on the global dimensions of finance, business and government. A lawyer and economist by training, he has a deep understanding of the cultural facets of negotiations, networks and partnerships. Mr. Ugeux currently serves as chairman and CEO of Galileo Global Advisors, a New York-based investment banking advisory firm with a direct focus on emerging markets.
Prior to starting Galileo Global Advisors in 2003, Mr. Ugeux headed the international group of the New York Stock Exchange. During his 7-year tenure, he brought more than 300 non-U.S. companies, valued at $2.7 trillion, to the U.S. market.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Ugeux was president and managing director at the securities firm Kidder, Peabody International. He was also a member of the European corporate executive council of General Electric, after which he became president of the European Investment Fund, a public-private partnership, where he was responsible for financing infrastructure and SME projects owned by the European Investment Bank, the European Community and 77 European banks.
Mr. Ugeux began his career in commercial banking at Société Générale de Banque, now BNP Paribas Fortis, where he headed the investment banking and trust division. He later became managing director of Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department, after which he became group finance director at Société Générale de Belgique, the leading Belgian conglomerate.
He is a frequent public speaker and educator on global issues and has taught at the Catholic University of Louvain and the College of Europe in Bruges. He was a special advisor to the program on international financial systems of Harvard Law School.
Mr. Ugeux holds a doctorate in Law and is Licentiate in Economics from the Catholic University of Louvain. He has dual Belgian and U.S. nationalities. He chairs and is a member of the board of numerous transatlantic organizations. In October 2010, his book The Betrayal of Finance: twelve reforms to restore confidence, was published in French by Odile Jacob in Paris. The English version will be published in early 2011. Mr. Ugeux writes a blog for LeMonde.fr, Demystifying Finance, the online version of the leading French newspaper, as well as for the Huffington Post.