FIT welcomes Joy Donné as new CEO
Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) has a new CEO since Friday 1 July 2022. On that day, Joy Donné took over from Claire Tillekaerts at the helm of Flanders’ government agency for international business. After a smooth handover period during the past two months, he is now getting further acquainted with the organization and its 94 offices and 320 employees worldwide.
The selection of Joy Donné followed an extensive, independent search for a successor to Claire Tillekaerts, who retired at the beginning of this month after nearly 16 years at FIT. As the new CEO, Joy Donné brings, among other things, his legal, economic and international background, extensive network and management experience to FIT.
With three master’s degrees under his belt – law at KU Leuven in Flanders, economic and business law at the Sorbonne in Paris and finance at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT) in Buenos Aires – Joy Donné began his career at law firm Stibbe in 1998. He later worked in legal and managerial positions for several cabinets, including those of Flanders’ Minister-President (1999-2000) and the federal Ministers of Home Affairs (2003-2004 and 2014-2018), Finance (2008-2011) and Justice (2012-2014).
Until his appointment as CEO of FIT, Joy Donné had been a Member of Parliament in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives since 2019.
Joy Donné also has European and international work experience. For several years, he worked as manager and legal director at the trade association European Plastics Converters (EuPC). From 2006 to 2008, under the mandate of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he also managed the sale and reconstruction of the Belgian embassy in Tokyo, where he lived for a year and a half.
Throughout the past years, FIT has transformed into a central actor in the internationalization of Flanders’ economy and the promotion of the region’s economic assets abroad. I am honored and delighted to put my shoulder to the wheel of FIT’s unique mission and strong potential as the organization’s new CEO. It’s essential to keep seizing the momentum for FIT and Flanders’ internationalizing business community.
In his new role as CEO, Joy Donné can be reached at joy.donne@fitagency.be.
