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S P E C I A L I S T M A G A Z I N E F O R M E M B E R S A N D F R I E N D S O F A B R A

Important Changes . ABRA Society Page . Members’ News

A World Class Education . She’s the Boss

As we go to press the world outside is covered in a beautiful blan-ket of snow, what a start to December! Yes it’s incredibly cold, but it sure looks good...

Inside our warm offices we find the year that has positively flown by is also looking rather good. ABRA has seen some great results, membership continues to grow and our members’ success stories warm our hearts. Congratulations to both BSB and BRC Relocation on the milestones you have reached and to Ziegler Relocation and Relocation Belgium for receiving their EuRA Quality Seal. It takes dedication and passion to achieve excellence.

Speaking of achieving excellence, ReLocate brings you a look behind the scenes of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. We catch Patrick De Greve en route to his next meeting, stuck in traffic that ground to a halt by this sudden change in weather. A fascinating insight into today’s world of business education that has left me considering applying for a place myself.

At our last members’ meeting Leo Verhoeven explained some very important changes in the use of debit cards abroad, we’re delighted to bring the story to those of you who weren’t able to attend as it affects everyone of us.

Of course we couldn’t deny you the fabulous people that make ABRA the professional, warm and welcoming association that it is, you’ll find our rogues gallery on pages 6 and 7.

I wish every one of our members, their families and friends the warmest of Christmases and an incredible start to 2011, happy reading and I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year!

President

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Congratulations

BRC Relocation

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Vlerinck

Management School

Feature Interview

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Important Changes

Debit Cards outside of

Europe

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Members’ News 5

She’s the Boss

Relocation Industry

dominated by women

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Society Page

Members Meeting

21st September 2010

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Dates for your Diary 8

With special thanks to our sponsors for their continued support

Cover image: Thom Clabots for illus.be

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A special congratulations goes out to Viv Hermans and her team at BRC Relocation. A busi-ness that started at Viv’s kitchen table and has just seen it’s 25th anniversary, celebrated with a stunning reception at the KBC towers.

Congratulations Viv, your passion is an inspiration to us all!

A World Class Education

“Most universities are tied in some way by the govern-mental subsidies they re-ceive. We’re fully autono-mous, which means we set our own curriculum. We’ve developed a programme that is exceptionally rele-vant towards today’s corpo-rate world as it has real in-

ternational dimension.”

“Vlerick enjoys academic support from two of Belgium’s leading universities which allows us to attract the very best professors who have a strong interest in relevant research and unique teaching and pedagogical skills.”

“Only around 65-70% of our curriculum is academically based. Over 30% of our programme is filled by guest lecturers, alumni, key note speakers and executives in residence. They are among the best in their field and more than 300 of them take the time out each year to come and speak to our students.“

“Nothing you can find in a book compares to having the top ex-ecutive of Proctor and Gamble come in and tell you about his 20 year career. Another of our resident executives is an Italian di-rector at Johnson Controls. Through his own experiences he shows how to best develop structures for all kinds of systems such as sales management or performance management.”

Vlerick believes in life-long learning; their MBA students are not only recent graduates, but also managers who have 5, 10 or 15 years of experience in business and want to give their careers an extra injection. Programmes on offer include leadership, risk management, marketing, finance and strategic development.

In their quest to become one of the world’s leaders in manage-ment education Vlerick has found itself becoming one of the barometers of business today; through their close ties to so many corporations, as well as their executives and managers, the programme portfolio is forever evolving.

As Patrick explains: “We’re kept on our toes by our students and lecturers; their active involvement in business means we have to continuously update our programme if we want to remain rele-vant.”

Perhaps not surprisingly the expat community is starting to find its way to Vlerick. “Especially Brussels’ expat community has really taken to our school” says Patrick. “Many of our students are the partners of expats that have been relocated to Belgium. They want to stay up to date and expand their personal skill set.

And what they are finding is a school that can match big names such as Kellog, Wharton or Nyenrode in teaching but gives much better value for money and great return on investment.”

Just ten years ago the school saw a turnover of €2 million with 40 or 50 staff. Today they have a turnover of €30 million with 75 professors and over 180 staff servicing the 500 MBA stu-dents and 6000 managers that attend the school annually. Their third campus opened in St Petersburg in 2006 and Vlerick has a joint venture with Peking University since 2008.

Patrick believes this exceptional growth is because the school offers entrepreneurs such a dynamic platform for learning. “This type of education is increasingly sought after: students are lining up to join our programme and companies find themselves in great need of people with international know-how.”

“For us however the greatest challenge is not just the interna-tionalization of business, but also of the school. Attracting inter-national talents that will not just travel to our campuses to teach but who will also add to our programme is no mean feat.”

“We have such a cultural richness and diversity on campus; our faculty is made up of 43 different nationalities and we have stu-dents from 87 countries. Working together is always an adven-ture.”

So how does Vlerick see the future? Will there be more cam-puses popping up around the world?

“Education for people with working experience is a growing sec-tor certainly. Our only limitation is attracting the absolute best in faculty and partners, so right now our focus will remain on consolidating the wealth of knowledge we have and ensuring quality in everything we do.”

“Of course, there is always room for exciting new projects. Most recently we developed an online game around leadership skills with a telecom provider. It’s absolutely fantastic; e-learning is the future. We have already developed Web 2.0* programmes to run alongside our classroom teachings.

However as we develop everything ourselves and with our own resources, these projects require a lot of attention and focus. We’re forever learning through trial and error…” And as we all know; by taking risks we often create the best op-portunities for growth and innovation. *Web 2.0: internet based programmes that allow people to col-laborate and share information, e.g. Wikipedia or MySpace

With over 50 years experience Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has be-come Belgium’s leading business school. Close ties to Ghent University and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven give it a strong academic background, but what exactly sets Vlerick apart from other business schools?

ReLocate brings you an enlightening conversation with Patrick De Greve, General Director at Vlerick, on what makes a world-class player.

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As from January 17th 2011 some very important changes in the use of your bank card (debit card) will be imple-mented. ReLocate brings you the latest in using your bank card abroad. Even though you might already be well protected against card fraud, if it does happen it is still an unpleasant and time consuming experience. The unauthorized debiting of your account needs to be rectified and all your cards have to be blocked and re-placed, even those not (yet) used to commit fraud. In the meantime, you are left without a means of payment for a number of days. Both Belgium and Europe have already invested heavily in payments security. Outside Europe, however, most ATMs and payment terminals continue to operate on the basis of a card’s magnetic strip instead of its chip. This in-creases the risk of debit card fraud, simply because the magnetic strip is more prone to misuse. To keep card fraud and all its unpleasant consequences to a minimum, Belgian banks have drawn up and imple-

mented a number of additional security measures cover-ing the use of debit cards outside Europe. Please note that nothing will change for debit card trans-actions carried out within Europe. As from 17 January 2011, Belgian debit cards may only be used as standard within Europe –including the European overseas territories, Turkey, and 6 further countries. If you are planning a trip outside Europe, your credit card remains the recommended means of payment whilst you're away. These changes do not affect credit card use, only bank cards. There will be no changes for card transactions carried out over the Internet. Transactions carried out over the Inter-net using debit cards remain unaffected both within and outside Europe. If you’ve just received a new bank card please be sure to use it in Belgium first before using it abroad. And if you have any questions at all regarding these changes do con-tact your local branch; they will be happy to answer any queries you may have.

Important Changes to Your Debit Card

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Continue using your debit card restriction free in these (European) countries.

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ReLocate magazine is always delighted to be able to bring you the very latest in what our members have been up to. This section will be a regular feature in our new look newsletter, so please be sure to keep us updated of your news! Any items for inclusion may be sent directly to Fiona Klomp via fiona@ilus.be

TV From Home offers TV services for ex-pats living in Belgium, Holland and Luxem-bourg. Receive any channel from any country. As an additional service there is Relocate TV Services: the installation of a clients own satellite system.

Email : info@tvfromhome.be for full details. Visit the website : www.tvfromhome.be TV From Home is also delighted to introduce its new Home Services for expats: the service offers you assistance with any-thing you might need, from a party planner for your child’s birthday party to reliable plumbers, electricians, Home Staging and Interior Design. Please visit www.expatinbelgium.com for full details on the range of services offered.

Ziegler Relocation is proud to announce that they were awarded the EuRa Quality Seal this last October. Our heartfelt congratulations to the team at Ziegler! Please visit www.zieglerrelocation.com for the full range of services and contact details.

AWAY Magazine If you haven’t ordered your copy of the special Christmas Edition yet please don’t forget to drop a line to production@awaymagazine.be There are a fantastic 10.000 copies of AWAY Magazine’s festive edition to give away.

BSB 40th anniversary celebrations were a milestone to re-member. The British School of Brussels welcomed over 150 representatives of multinational corporations, embassies and government institutions at a cocktail reception held at the British Ambassador’s official residence in Brussels on the eve-ning of 21 October 2010. The British Ambassador in Belgium, Mr Jonathan Brenton gave a warm opening speech, congratulating BSB on their academic success over the last four decades. ReLocate is delighted to see the success of BSB and offers its congratulations to the school, its staff and teachers.

She's the boss: women dominate relocation industry Runzheimer International's annual snapshot of the relocation professional shows that the position is typically held by a 46-year-old fe-male earning $71,204 with 10 years experience in the field. The 20th Annual Profile of the Relocation Administrator also reported that a staggering 88 percent of survey respondents were female. Those in the field confirmed that they see more women than men working in the industry, but they also said more men are seeing the relocation industry as an attractive profession. Gender adjustments, however, are just part of the changes going on in the business. Re-location professionals see their jobs becoming increasingly focused, professional and global in nature. "Because the industry is so vast and going in so many different directions, the opportunities will be quite good for relocation specialists," said Kathy Curtis, a senior vice president with GMAC Global Relocation Services in San Ramon, Calif. There's no denying, though, that the field has been good for women. Studies -- as well as testimonials -- show that women dominate the industry. In addition to the Runzheimer data, the Employee Relocation Council reported that about 75 percent of its 10,000 members are women. Women tend to succeed in the field because they have nurturing qualities that help them work well with the moving families. Relocation professionals also said women tend to thrive in the environment because they tend to have the team-building, multi-tasking and hand-holding skills needed to do the job well. For the full article please visit: She's the boss: Women dominate relocation industry | Boston Business Journal http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2002/08/05/focus2.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article

ABRA MEMBER’S MEETING - 21st September 2010

Our thanks go out to KBC for hosting this meeting, the fabulous catering and of course to all our members for their excellent company. A big thank you also to our main speaker Ms Kay Hall of AIRINC for giving us an insight into the current trends of the relocation industry and Mr Leo Verhoeven for informing us on some very important updates to the use of Belgian bankcards abroad.

To put names to faces please visit the events page at www.abra-relocation.com

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Dates for your Diary

FURTHER ABRA MEMBERS MEETINGS: Tuesday 15th March 2011 - location and speakers to be an-nounced AGM: Tuesday 24th May - location and time to be announced.

13th - 15th April 2011 12th International Relocation Congress Palma de Mallorca “Inspiration, Dedication, Re:Creation” visit www.eura-relocation.com for further details

If you would like to see your event listed in ReLocate,

or for further information on advertising, please contact

admin@abra-relocation.com with the details.

ReLocate is published quarterly, in March, June, September and November.

www.abra-relocation.com

Relocation Coaching Programme EuRA and Oxford Brookes University

This revolutionary online programme ws jointly developed by EuRA and the International Centre for Coaching and Leader-ship Development at Oxford Brookes University.

The programme is aimed at relocation professionals wishing to update their skills as well as anyone looking to get into the profession of relocation.

How it works: There are four programmes of 3 online mod-ules each. Each module takes between four and six hours to complete and you have a month in which to do so.

You can study whenever you like and for as long as you like!

For more information or to register please visit www.eura-relocation.com