Bettina De Ruyck

Bettina De Ruyck is a doctoral researcher in the field of strategic leadership and corporate governance. She joined Vlerick in 2018 – and initially carried out research into executive pay and reward management. She works in the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Rewards and the Executive Remuneration Research Centre, collaborating closely with Professor Xavier Baeten.

Bettina’s current research starts from the premise that CEOs play a critical role in shaping business strategy and performance. Her work builds on previous research into CEO pay that failed to consider individual differences – such as personality and values. Both person and pay are key drivers of CEO behaviour. So Bettina’s aim is to explain why some businesses perform better than others, while studying both drivers simultaneously. Her research may encourage professionals who design CEO pay to step away from a one-size-fits-all approach.

She also studies businesses’ ESG performance and strategic flexibility to gain insight into performance outcomes.

Who am I?

• Doctoral researcher at Vlerick Business School and Ghent University
• Visiting researcher at University of Georgia, Terry College of Business (2021-2022)
• Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) research grant and fellowship (2021-2022)
• Master of Science in Business Economics (Marketing) at Ghent University
• Ghent University award for Best Student in Business Economics, main subject Marketing, over the full 4 years – Trust Fund J. Van Acker & J. De Rijcke (2018)