It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that our colleague and friend, professor emeritus André De Béthune, passed away on September 2.
Originally trained as in science (chemistry, license and PhD, UCL), André continued his university studies in management (license applied economics, diploma in management, UCL, MBA at Harvard Business School) before joining UCLouvain in 1969 as researcher in the "Centre de Perfectionnement dans la direction des Entreprises”, a precursor in management education in Belgium.
Appointed chargé de cours in 1973, André worked alongside among others Michel Woitrin and Philippe De Woot establishing the a full curriculum in management, teaching primarily management strategy, but also management controlling, accounting and information systems. During his long career at IAG, the school later to become our faculty, André contributed significantly to the international dimensions (CEMS, TACIS) and to the modern view of technological integration through IT.
He carried numerous mandates throughout his time, secrétaire académique of IAG 1982-85, president of jurys, programme director, director of POGE, and president of IAG 1996-99 and 2009-2010. Indeed, the last year of his presidency of IAG was crucial for the transition from the school IAG in ESPO to become the autonomous faculty LSM in 2010.
However, André De Béthune is also a true manager in action. During the period 1985-1991 he was the CEO of the Rossel Group and Managing Editor for the newspaper Le Soir. Going from theory to practice with great ease, André managed the press group through a critical technological transformation with foresight and delicacy. His former colleagues in the sector, at Rossel but also RTI et CIM, remember him as a distinguished and intellectual manager of great integrity and ethics.
The faculty LSM will forever recall André as a colleague with a true passion for our missions and the international openness of the university, but also for his refined, tungue-in-cheek humour that characterised him. Highly appreciated by his students and colleagues, he retired in 2010 but continued teaching some classes until 2013.
Please join with me in offering our sincerest condolences to his closest family, as well as to all whose lives and careers were touched by André’s inspiration and influence,
Per Agrell, Dean of the faculty