On Saturday evening 12 April 2008 the Vlerick Award will be presented for the eighth time by the alumni association of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. This year they honour a Belgian entrepreneur who has by means of sustained results developed his company internationally. The four nominees are: Hein Deprez (Univeg), Gabriel Fehervari (Alfacam), Marc Saverys (CMB) and Urbain Vandeurzen (LMS).

The winner will be chosen by a public vote online via the website of Vlerick Alumni (from mid March), by a panel of professionals and by the audience on the evening itself. To be nominated for the Vlerick Award, the nominee must be a multitalented Belgian entrepreneur with outstanding management skills who also has achieved sustained results from an international perspective, which has led to the company developing into a leader in the market sector. In the last few years, the Award went to: Karel Van Miert (2001), Baron Paul De Keersmaeker (2002), Jean-Luc Dehaene (2003), Dr. Peter Piot (2004), Dr. Catherine Verfaillie (2005), Zuster Jeanne Devos (2006) en Baron Patrick De Maeseneire (2007).

The nominees for this year are:

Hein Deprez (Univeg)

Hein Deprez (Wilrijk, 1961) is CEO of the UNIVEG group. Starting out with a mushroom farm in the Waasland area, he went on to build up a veritable private multinational in a period of twenty years. In the market of fruit and vegetables, UNIVEG can more than hold their own with the big groups such as Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte. Today the UNIVEG group consists of 4 business units: fruit & vegetables, flowers & plants, convenience and logistics & transport. The group comprises around one hundred businesses, collectively achieving a turnover of 2.2 billion Euros with around 8,000 employees. The UNIVEG group is active in 23 countries on 3 continents. During the last three years Deprez has increased the turnover fivefold by a number of targeted takeovers. The one that caught the attention most was the acquisition of the French Kapoté, good for a turnover of 230 million Euros. Since 2005 Deprez has also been a reference shareholder in the Pinguin group, a company quoted on the stock exchange, with 1,200 employees and a turnover of 450 million Euros. Via Pinguin he took over the well-known potato processing business Lutosa in June 2007.

Gabriel Fehervari (Alfacam)

Gabriel Fehervari (Wilrijk, 1960) is CEO of the Alfacam Group. In 1985 Gabriel Fehervari started a video business in Antwerp.  His first multi-camera assignment was to take video images of the first edition of The Night of the Proms in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. Since then Alfacam has continued to push out his frontiers. Alfacam grew in 22 years into a group of 3 companies: Alfacam (multimedia television services), Euro1080 (tv channels in high definition, such as the culture channel EXQI) and Eurolinx (wireless tv services). All these services are housed in the Eurocam Media Center in Lint. The Media Center today has 11 recording studios, including the biggest in the Benelux. Every year Alfacam provides television and recording facilities for more than 1,800 productions by channels and production companies all over the world. The organisation has three external support points: Alfacam France SAS is based in Marseille and provides services to the French, Spanish and Monegasque markets. Alfacam Deutschland in Munich focuses on the German-speaking regions. End February 2008 a third arm was started up, namely Alfacam Italia. Alfacam is recognized as setting the trend in HDTV, the high-quality television signal of the future. In 2006 Alfacam achieved a turnover of 27.96 million Euros. The figures for 2007 were not yet available when this press release was issued.

Marc Saverys (CMB)

Marc Saverys (Gent, 1954) is CEO of the shipping group CMB. After studying law he started his professional career at the shipping department of Bocimar, part of the family-holding Almabo. In 1985 he left Bocimar, which by then had been sold to CMB and switched to Exmar, part of the Almabo group, in those days a diversified shipping company, where he took up the post of delegated manager and looked after the dry bulk business.  In 1991 Almabo and Exmar took over Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) from the Société Générale de Belgique. During the nineties he tried, together with his brother Nicolas, to put the long-established but not very profitable shipping group on the rails by regularly selling off branches or shares in other companies and using the proceeds to purchase more vessels.  Demerging CMB from Exmar in 2003 and from Euronav in 2004, coupled with very strong results, has over recent years turned CMB into a winner on the stock exchange. In 2003, prior to the demergers from Exmar and Euronav, the CMB share price was 12 Euros. At the start of 2008 the collective share price of CMB, Euronav and Exmar adds up to 95 Euros.  These days Bocimar (the dry bulk shipping company), that since 2003 has been taking full advantage of the explosive growth of the Chinese economy, is the main business of CMB. The company is also active in logistics (Hessenatie Logistics), real estate (Reslea) and has interests in several other firms, such as ship broker Clarkson's. CMB realized a turnover of 376 million Euros in 2007. Euronav, the tanker company, achieved a turnover of 562 million Euros.  Marc Saverys is also the founder and chairman of the Private Stichting Durabilis.

Urbain Vandeurzen (LMS)

Urbain Vandeurzen (Bree, 1956) is chairman and managing director of LMS International. In 1982 he became the youngest ever doctor in applied sciences in the history of the K.U.Leuven.  Aged 24 he became a co-shareholder of LMS, from which the spin-off companies in Leuven all originated.  LMS started off as an engineering firm, specialising in noise and vibration testing. Under the management of Urbain Vandeurzen LMS grew in 25 years from a niche-business to a world market leader in simulation and test software and ditto consultancy services for the mechanical industry.  LMS, with Urbain Vandeurzen as majority shareholder, nowadays employ more than 800 people, spread over 30 establishments in Europe, North-America and Asia. More than 100.000 R&D engineers in 5,000 companies in the mechanical industry use LMS technology every day to improve the safety, durability, comfort and noise characteristics of cars, aeroplanes, satellites and other advanced technical products. LMS makes it possible to drastically reduce the development costs and lead times by conducting extensive tests on virtual prototypes very early on. In 2007 LMS achieved a turnover of more than 120 million Euros. Urbain Vandeurzen is also chairman of VOKA, the largest Flemish network of enterprises.