“All my life I drove a Rolls-Royce, does it need a Belgian to sell the jewel on the crown of British automotive?” This is written on T-shirts of demonstrators who want to boycott the Vickers shareholders’ meeting. Rolls drivers honk and even throw tomatoes. Bodyguards have to be deployed to protect the man at the front.
The year is 1998 and the British upper working class – think: the father of Victoria ‘Posh’ Beckham – is extremely indignant because the crown jewel of the British automotive sector is being sold to the German Volkswagen. Cost price? 478 million pounds or 28 billion francs. The Belgian who is considered the evil genius behind the sale? Paul Buysse – at that time still with the noble title of knight, a year later he would become baron and in 2014 count.
“I had found a good buyer, who gave a decent price, with the guarantee that all jobs would be preserved,” Buysse reflected on that moment upon his retirement. “But what a circus that turned out to be at the special shareholders’ meeting: never before in my life!”
It’s about the money
And he has been through something, the Antwerp top manager who died just before 2024. He was only 78, but had been “seriously ill” for a year, his entourage told HLN.
Paul Buysse (°1945) was one of the most colorful figures in the post-war Belgian economy. He started his own career in the automotive sector, first with Ford in 1966 and ten years later with car manufacturer British Leyland. At that time, money was very important to him, the businessman admitted in De Standaard. “I had a raging fear of being fired and was incredibly happy when I got a raise – no matter how marginal it was when I started working at Ford after college.”
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Several more companies followed where he held managerial positions. Soon “Buysse” became a household name in the British business world and far beyond. In 1998, Buysse became the new CEO of the British industrial group Vickers. He managed to successfully restructure the loss-making group – including through the equally maligned and successful sale of Rolls-Royce …
In 1999, there was a hostile bid for Vickers from Rolls-Royce Plc, the manufacturer of aircraft engines, among other things. Rolls-Royce tried to sideline Buysse by making the offer at a time when the Belgian was in the US and was therefore five hours behind Great Britain. The plan worked. Buysse then returned to Belgium.
Bekaert
In May 2000, he was appointed chairman of steel wire producer Bekaert, a multinational with headquarters in Zwevegem, West Flanders. In 2012, Bekaert’s articles of association were amended especially for him, to allow him to continue working after the age of 67. Two years later he effectively retired and received a golden handshake of 3.54 million euros. The sum provoked a storm of protest, not least because there had been forced layoffs at the company shortly before.
“Some may consider this amount excessive,” he noted. “Bon, so be it. I don’t have any wild plans. I will invest a large part in young starters and poverty alleviation.”
He also held numerous other positions. For example, he was chairman of the Prince Philip Fund, chairman of the board of censors at the National Bank and chairman of the Board of Directors of ENG-Videohouse.
Paul Buysse leaves behind a wife and five children.
In 1983, together with a number of others, he co-founded the NEA (New Economic Appeal), an influential socio-economic think tank.
‘Unique beast’
In his farewell interview with De Standaard in 2013, Paul Buysse prided himself on being an international entrepreneur. According to him, that was the difference with young(er) entrepreneurs such as Wouter Torfs or Marc Coucke. “I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Torfs, who has turned a few shoe stores into a big business and has made a very nice journey,” he said. “But I think, again with all due respect, that it is something different than making a career worldwide. Sometimes I would leave on a Sunday on a direct flight to Australia, arrive there, get a microphone under my nose and have to do a TV interview with jet lag in my clothes – that kind of situation. I have found myself in extremely dangerous situations in Nigeria, with two cars of bodyguards in front of and behind my car.’
“I am a bit of a unique animal in Flanders,” he concluded. “I think few have done what I did – what I was allowed to do.”
Code Buysse
Paul Buysse was also a proud resident of Zoute in Knokke, even though the municipality was not “the Mecca of corporate governance”, as he recently admitted in De Tijd. The latter was one of his hobbyhorses. In 2005, Buysse introduced the so-called “Buysse Code”, a corporate governance manual for non-listed companies. With recommendations on, among other things, internal control and appropriate compensation, it was intended to help companies grow sustainably.
The count has always rejected a career in politics. “Two parties were competing for my hand at the same time,” he said in 2014. “Oh well, that wouldn’t have been for me. I would be a bad politician. I am the man of free dialogue; I first rotate my tongue in my mouth three times before I can say something, that doesn’t suit me.”
He was at the head of the royal endowment from 2015 to 2020. He was an intimate of King Philip – and a big fan – and a confidant of the royal family. Since 2016, Buysse has been a member of the crisis team that had to prepare our country for the consequences of a possible Brexit. According to the count, the British exit from the European Union should not cause panic in the business world.
No fat neck
“They can say anything at my funeral,” Buysse said in 2013. “Except: Paul, that was brave.” He had a penchant for beautiful clothes, often came out straight and had a reputation for being quite flamboyant. Yet he did not cultivate it, he said ten years ago in De Standaard. I’m everything, but not a big neck, he thought.
“I’m the man I am. I’ve always tried to be myself. Both my grandfathers seem to have been big partiers. They played together in the brass band and regularly performed together. It skipped a generation, my father was the opposite: very conservative, very dogmatic, very Catholic – we didn’t get along too well.”
Count Paul Buysse was 78. He leaves behind a wife and five children.
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