About

Georges Ugeux founded Galileo Global Advisors to offer CEOs, Boards of Directors and Governments independent advice on international business development, restructuring, compliance and capital market issues. He is an expert in financial services and teaches European Banking and Finance as well as Central Banking at the Columbia University School of Law.

Prior to founding Galileo, Georges Ugeux joined the New York Stock Exchange in September 1996, as Group Executive Vice President, International & Research. He built and managed the Exchange’s International Group and, during his tenure, spearheaded the listing of 308 companies from 43 countries, out of the 470 non-US companies listed on the NYSE with an aggregate value of $2.7 trillion. During that same period, the NYSE international trading moved from 40 to 140 million shares a day.

Georges Ugeux, a 70-year old Belgian and US national, began his career in 1970 at Société Générale de Banque (now BNP Paribas Fortis), the leading Belgian bank, where he became General Manager of the investment banking and trust division. His career led him to London in 1985, as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Mergers and Acquisitions department. In 1988, he was appointed Group Finance Director at Société Générale de Belgique, the leading Belgian diversified industrial and financial conglomerate owned by the French leading company Engie (formerly GDF Suez). In 1992, he became president of Kidder, Peabody Europe as well as Managing Director while serving as a member of the Management Committee and the Board of Directors of Kidder, Peabody, Inc. He was put in charge of the firm’s global origination efforts. In addition, he was also a member of the European Corporate Executive Council of General Electric Inc.
From 1995 until joining the NYSE, Georges Ugeux served as President of the European Investment Fund, a Euro 2 billion public-private partnership created by the Heads of State and Government of the European Union at the Edinburgh Summit. He also chaired the Kingdom of Belgium’s Privatization Commission, at the time of the Belgacom privatization.

Georges Ugeux holds a Doctorate in Law and is Licentiate in Economics from the Catholic University of Louvain. He has lectured at that University, as well as at the College of Europe in Bruges. He also served as a Special Advisor of the Program on International Financial Systems of Harvard Law School.

In 2011, he published “The betrayal of Finance: Twelve reforms to restore confidence” in French, English and Flemish. His new book, “International Finance Regulation: The Quest for Financial Stability” has been published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons in its Finance Series. He is currently preparing a new book: Central Banking at the Crossroads: Building a Credible Model for Modern Times. His first fiction novel, The Flying Dragon was published in December 2015.

Georges Ugeux is a director of AXA Tian Ping Property & Casualty, a joint venture insurance company in Shanghai. He is a Director of Avant, a Japanese business solution company. He is a Member of the Investment Committee of the Sisters of Our Lady of Africa. He is also honorary chairman of the Belgian American Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic University of Louvain Foundation. He sits on the International Advisory Boards of Guangzhou Municipal Board for International Investment, the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Oxford Analytica and APCO worldwide.

Other Works

  • Le Dragon volant

    2017
  • The Betrayal of Finance (Chinese)

    2017
  • The Flying Dragon

    2016
  • International Finance Regulation: The Quest for Financial Stability

    2014
  • The Betrayal of Finance

    2011
  • La Trahison de la finance: douze reformes pour restaurer la confiance

    2009