Citizenship award 2015: Frans De Clerck en Eric Domb

The 2015 Citizenship Award went to two individuals who proved that successful entrepreneurship is also compatible with good citizenship and with an ethical and respectful approach to people, society and the planet. They also demonstrated that entrepreneurship can be an important foundation of good citizenship. That it is an extremely important way to strive for a better and more just world.

Frans De Clerck

Born 1945 in Arendonk. Started his career in 1968 at Bank Demaertelaere and then worked for Bank IPPA, the Belgian Bank for Industry and Indosuez Bank and the National Investment Company.

Co-founder of the cooperative company Mercurius and the VZW Mercurius Fonds voor Maatschappelijke Vernieuwing in the early 1980s.

Co-founder and director of the Belgian branch of Triodos Bank in 1993. Subsequently also statutory director and member of the executive committee of Triodos Bank's Dutch parent company in Zeist and director in various companies of Triodos Holding. Involved in the international development of the Triodos Group. He chaired the International Association of Investors in the Social Economy and co-founded Global Alliance for Banking on Values, an alliance of the world's leading ethical banks.

Among others, he held mandates and positions at the Institute for Social Banking, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Hélène de Beir Foundation and the Strategic Committee of CultureInvest. Performed advisory assignments for, among others, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the Flemish Ministry of Culture. He is a member of the Flemish Social-Economic Forum.

Studied at the Vlerick Management School, where he lectured on the ethics of doing business.

Frans De Clerck retired in 2010.

Eric Domb

Born in Uccle in 1960. Studies law at the Université Catholique de Louvain and Commercial and Financial Sciences at the Economische Hogeschool Sint-Aloysius in Brussels. Works as a lawyer, as a consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and sets up his own consulting firm SA Stratéfi in 1990.

• In 1994, Parc Paradisio opens as an ornithological garden on the grounds of the former Cistercian abbey of Cambron.
• In 1999, he takes Paradisio public.
• Chairman of the Union Wallonne des Entreprises from 2006 to 2009 and Manager of the Year in 2007.
• In 2010, Parc Paradisio changes its name and becomes Pairi Daiza.
• In 2014, the Pairi Daiza Foundation is set up to spread Pairi Daiza's ideas beyond the abbey walls.
• In 2015, Eric Domb decides to delist Pairi Daiza, with the support of Flemish entrepreneur Marc Coucke.

www.pairidaiza.eu

(Download pdf Laureaten 2015)