Jean-Jacques Degroof

Jean-Jacques Degroof has spent extensive amounts of time working in both financial markets and research institutions. His educational history begins in the Louvain School of Management at the Catholic University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. There he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration, graduating with honors. Three years later, in 1983, Degroof graduated from the Institute of Labor Studies at the same school with a Master of Labor Studies, again with honors. In 1993, Jean-Jacques Degroof earned a second Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, a Master of Science in Management. His interest in the management field did not end there, however, as five years later, in 2002, MIT granted him a PhD in Management. His thesis was entitled “Spinning Off Ventures from Academic Institutions Outside High-Tech Entrepreneurial Areas.”

A native of Belgium, Jean-Jacques Degroof served in the Belgian armed forces from 1981 to 1982. In 1983 he spent a year in the United States, where he gained experience in the financial world by working as a banking trainee at various institutions in New York. Degroof’s first substantial position in the financial industry was at Générale de Banque as a credit analyst and a staff member of the Executive Committee. From there he went on to serve as Human Resource Manager and Private Banking Manager at Banque Degroof in Brussels, and then as the Director of Bank Degroof Group. In 1999, he founded Alena S.A. and served as its Director. In 2005, Degroof, who is also active in the charitable sector, became the President of the Degroof-Van Massenhove Foundation. Jean-Jacques Degroof has also been a lecturer and researcher at a number of academic institutions, such as Audencia Management School, MIT, and the University of Liège.