The non-profit organisation Vlerick Leuven Gent Alumni, which at present coordinates the alumni activities of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, was founded on 22 April 1958 by professor André Vlerick. Today, this organisation represents over 13,000 alumni from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, as well as from the institutions (SPSO / Vlerick School for Management, MBA programme of the K.U. Leuven, International School of Management Sint-Petersburg) that gave birth to the School.

 

 

In 1958 professor Vlerick founded the alumni association of the SPSO, the “Seminarie voor Productiviteitsstudie en –Onderzoek”. Together with his right hand, Agnes Prelis, he annually organised a reunion for the alumni. Primarily, he wanted to demonstrate which research the SPSO was working on, so the alumni would be able to introduce this into their companies. During the sixties and the seventies, the alumni activities were mainly carried by the alumni of the PUB programme (current Master in General Management) under the protective wings of the umbrella alumni organisation. In this respect, they established their own association (“section”), the first chairman of which was Paul Verhaeghe (PUB 1965).

 

Throughout the eighties, all advanced management studies of the University of Ghent were integrated in the Vlerick School for Management. The majority of the management programmes at this “new” school had their own alumni activities (“sections”), which operated independently from each other and the umbrella organisation. Especially SLM (Speciale Licentie Marketing) Alumni attracted the attention with strong events inspired by the like of Pascal Libyn (SLM 1989). 

 

As in Gent, a management school had developed in Leuven at the same time, primarily within the Faculty of Economics and Applied Economic Sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven. The international MBA program was launched in 1968 and proved to be the most important accomplishment. As opposed to Ghent, where the emphasis was mainly on the business community, Leuven rather focussed its attention on the academic aspect. This MBA programme had also established a sound alumni association throughout the years.

 

In 1998 the "Vlerick School for Management" was detached from the University of Ghent and the Leuven MBA program was transferred to Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. At the same time, it was decided that all alumni having received a formation of at least twenty days at the School, were allowed to officially call themselves “alumnus”. Jan Coene (TOP 1984), the alumni chairman in those days, adhered this signal to advocate the integration of all the “sections” and the K.U.Leuven MBA alumni activities into one strong association.

 

The revaluation of the umbrella alumni organisation was accompanied by a large number of events and services (magazine, members’ book), available to all the alumni of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. Meanwhile the “sections” continued to organise smaller events for their specific target audiences. This dual model still stands today. In order to professionally elaborate the organisation, alumnus Geert Van Coillie (PUB 1988) was appointed as general manager. Throughout the years, Vlerick Leuven Gent Alumni expanded to an association of over 4,000 paying members, a work budget of 1 million euro and a staff of 5 professional employees.

 

 

In the new millennium, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School chose its international course with strong determination. An essential step in the internationalisation of Vlerick was the development of a third campus in St.-Petersburg, Russia. Its alumni association was not far behind in establishing international chapters (branches of Vlerick Alumni outside of Belgium). Anno 2009, Vlerick Alumni possesses nine valuable chapters. Furthermore, the association has already planned activities in six other countries as well.