Belgian politician and businessman Alexander De Croo was born on November 3, 1975, and has been the country’s prime minister since October 2020. Born in Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant, De Croo attended Vrije Universiteit Brussel to study business engineering before completing an MBA program at Northwestern University in the United States. Prior to founding Darts-ip in 2006, he was employed at Boston Consulting Group. Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Open VLD), a political party in Belgium that De Croo joined and served as chairman of from 2009 until 2012. De Croo was Belgium’s deputy prime minister under the governments of Elio Di Rupo, Charles Michel, and Sophie Wilmès from 2012 until 2020.

While serving as the deputy prime minister From 2012 to 2014, he was the Minister of Pensions; from 2014 to 2020, he was the Minister of Development Cooperation; and from 2018 to 2020, he was the Minister of Finance. More than a year after the 2019 federal elections, on October 1, 2020, the De Croo Government—in which De Croo serves as prime minister—was established to replace Wilmès’ minority government.

Born	3 November 1975 (age 48 years), Vilvoorde, Belgium
Age	45
Place of Birth	Vilvoorde
Education	Free University of Brussels,Northwestern University,Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Parents	Herman De Croo, Françoise Desguin
Spouse	Annik Penders
Children	Gabriël De Croo, Tobias De Croo
Party	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats
Office	Prime Minister of Belgium since 2020
Previous office	Minister of Finance of Belgium (2019–2020)

Early Political Career

Growing up with a father who was the longest-serving Belgian member of parliament, Alexander De Croo ’04 was immersed in politics throughout much of his life. So, when it came time to start building his own career, De Croo wanted to keep his distance from that world. I always said it’s not something for me. I’ve seen it too much,” he says. “I was in a business career, and I thought entrepreneurship was my real passion.”

Indeed, De Croo initially steered away from a political career — first, working as a consultant for a global firm, then pursuing business school at Kellogg and founding his own startup. But even with success as a business leader, De Croo says he could not escape a feeling of unrest, drawn to a desire to make a difference in his home country. I learned a lot of things, but more and more, I felt that something was missing,” he says. “I wanted to have more societal impact beyond my industry.

De Croo ultimately gave in to the allure of politics and has been involved in politics for 12 years. De Croo took on the most important position in Belgium in October 2020 when he was appointed prime minister. He says, “It was never my goal, and I never imagined that I’d be in this position.” “I’ve made an effort to maintain my freshness and approach the role more from a business standpoint.” In addition to taking office amid a worldwide pandemic, De Croo also assumed leadership of the nation after over a year without an official administration. De Croo claims he has used on his business background and Kellogg education to assist him navigate these obstacles. country of 11 million people through this time.

De Croo entered the 2009 European elections as a first-time political participant. More than 47,000 votes were cast for him. On October 26, De Croo announced his candidacy for the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) presidential position, seeking to replace Guy Verhofstadt as head of the transitional party. To compete against Gwendolyn Rutten and Marino Keulen, he selected Vincent Van Quickenborne and Patricia Ceysens as his running mates. With 11,676 votes, he was elected president on December 12 in the second round; Marino Keulen garnered 9,614 votes. Given his lack of political experience, his election was regarded as noteworthy.

Becoming An Entrepreneur

When De Croo came to Kellogg in 2002, he says he not only took classes that would continue to serve him in his career at the time as a consultant, but he also pushed himself to take classes that exposed him to entirely new subjects like entrepreneurship. After returning to his firm, The Boston Consulting Group, for a couple years after graduation, De Croo wanted to make a change.

“At some point as a consultant, you start to see that the skill set you acquire is really an advisor skill set,” he says. “I found out that I’m not so sure I’m a very good advisor. I’m better at doing things.” In 2006 De Croo founded Darts-ip, now acquired by Clarivate, which is a database for intellectual property lawyers, providing global information and analytics in support of IP prosecution and litigation activities.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, you could go to the industries that are sexy industries that everyone is working at, but it will be much harder to make a difference,” he says. “If you go into what you would call a boring industry, it’s much easier to make a splash, make a difference.”De Croo says his startup was in a “boring” industry, which made some former colleagues question his decision to leave his consulting career to pursue entrepreneurship. They said you are basically a salesperson now, and you’re trying to sell your product to lawyers,” De Croo says. “I remember I told them, well, you will never understand. You’ve never been in a situation where you develop something yourself, and you sell your own product. The feeling of that, to me, is something which is incomparable.

Transitioning to A Political Career

After working on Darts-ip for nearly four years, De Croo was ready to try out another career change into politics. In his first election as a candidate for the European Parliament for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats party, De Croo set out to lose. I deliberately said I do not want to get elected because I wanted to try it out and not be in the spotlight,” he says. “It was a fun thing to do, and actually, I liked it. I did not want to get elected, but I got the taste of it.”

In 2009, De Croo decided to run for election again and was elected as the chairman of the Open VLD party until 2012. For the following eight years, he served as deputy prime minister, holding a variety of responsibilities, including minister of development and minister of finance. I think people that have clear cut career plans for the rest of their lives are actually quite boring,” De Croo says. “I believe more in going with the flow and using the opportunities that cross your path. I think you should be quite open about what you do in the future. In his current role as prime minister, De Croo emphasizes the importance of fostering teams with diverse perspectives — a value ingrained in him since his time at Kellogg.

“If you look at the innovation that is taking place today, it’s never one person who is doing it. It’s always a team, which often is very diverse,” he says. “I think the ones who are successful today are the ones who are able to get the strongest team around them, the ones that are not afraid to get people around them that are smarter than them and are comfortable with that.

In building his administration, De Croo felt it was important to achieve gender parity for the first time, which also included naming the first transgender vice prime minister in Belgium. Diversity of thought is also reflected in his administration, which includes representatives from seven of Belgium’s political parties. In dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, De Croo says he views himself as the “coach,” not just of his administrative team, but of all Belgium residents as well, who have a role in curbing the spread of the virus.

“It’s something that’s linked to what I learned at Kellogg,” he says. “I’m a big believer in teamwork, and it’s quite clear if you look at the world today, if everyone brings what they’re best at to the table, we can do incredible things. He continues, “That’s what we did with developing the vaccine, for example. It’s private sector, public sector, academia — they all brought to the table, without a lot of questioning, what they’re best at. If you do that, you can do incredible things. That’s what I try to do in my government teams as well.

Part of the Michel I and II governments

It was determined that he will continue to serve as Deputy Prime Minister in the newly established Michel I Government following the 2014 Belgian federal election and the establishment of the Federal Government. De Croo also attained the position of Minister of Postal Services, Telecom, Digital Agenda, and Development Cooperation.Daniel Bacquelaine succeeded him as the Minister of Pensions. This government came into being on October 11, 2014.

Following the start of violent turmoil in Burundi in 2015, Belgium was the first nation to halt formal development assistance to the African nation while De Croo was in power. De Croo committed €25 million ($26.81 million) in 2017 with the goal of eradicating sleeping sickness in Africa by 2025. Additionally, he was among the pioneers of the She Decides campaign, which was a response to the reinstatement of the Trump administration’s Mexico City Policy.

The administration became a minority government on December 9, 2018, dubbed as Michel II, when the N-VA withdrew from the governing coalition due to a disagreement inside the administration over the UN Global Compact for Migration. De Croo succeeded Johan Van Overtveldt as Minister of Finance. De Croo performed at the Global Citizen Festival Mandela 100 concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, in December 2018. It was the last event of the global #SheIsEqual campaign for women’s rights, which garnered promises totaling €780 million.

Part of the Wilmès I and II Governments

He oversaw a contract to salvage Brussels Airlines in 2020 and a financial stimulus package to address the COVID-19 issue under Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès’ caretaker cabinet. Along with Egbert Lachaert, he was chosen as Open VLD’s joint deputy chairman. To establish a government, the King appointed Paul Magnette (PS) and Alexander De Croo on September 23, 2020.The 24th De Croo was supposed to succeed Wilmès as prime minister, but that was revealed on September 30, 2020.[25]

It was not immediately apparent that the Vivaldi administration in Belgium was not quickly formed. De Croo’s correspondence with an Italian pornographic film actress was the main source of scandal, according to Wouter Verschelden’s book De doodgravers van België [nl], which describes the lengthy discussions.In [26]In [27] The implicated actress allegedly messaged De Croo in August 2021 asking for a meeting; they never met, but they kept in touch through messaging, according to comments that Corriere della Sera cited from her.

A law aimed at increasing labor market flexibility was passed by the government in February 2022. It allows employees to choose to work a four-day workweek, as long as their employer permits it. They will receive a 38-hour work week (9.5 hours per working day) in exchange for this. Because working between 8 p.m. and midnight will no longer be regarded as night employment and will not entitle employees to remuneration, the rule also increases flexibility in the workday.(31 )

There is conflict within the government’s coalition as a result of its desire to raise military spending to two percent of GDP in order to appease NATO and the US administration. Ecologists disagree, claiming that the government should not support the scheme, while the right wing does. should place more importance on than the armed forces, while socialists are still unsure.

Personal Life

De Croo is married to Annik Penders and they have two children. He is a keen equestrian and takes part in a formal event each year together with his father; in 2010 he broke a foot and an elbow when he fell from his horse. He is fluent in Dutch and English, as well as French, the native language of his mother.

Alexander De Croo Net worth

Check how rich is Alexander De Croo in 2020? also latest information on Alexander De Croo cars, Alexander De Croo income, remuneration, lifestyle.Based on Online sources ( Wikipedia,google Search,Yahoo search) Alexander De Croo estimated net worth is $ USD 5 Mil and Primary income from politician. We don’t have enough evidences on Alexander De Croo cars, Alexander De Croo lifestyle. We will update these information soon.

Honours

• Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau(2023).

Deal reached on Belgium’s new government

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Nearly 500 days after Belgian citizens cast their votes, top party negotiators have reached an agreement for a new federal government.

The parties making up the incoming 7-party Vivaldi coalition clinched a deal early on Wednesday morning following marathon talks that stretched out since Tuesday evening. As top party officials go over the details of the agreement, party leaders have now moved onto the next stage of deciding on the makeup of the future cabinet and of naming the new prime minister, set to be one of the two formators, the Parti Socialiste’s (PS) Paul Magnette or the Flemish liberal’s (Open Vld) Alexander De Croo.

The agreement comes 493 days after the election on 26 May and includes a plan to pump €3.3 billion into the roll-out of new policies topped off with €1 billion for investments and €1 billion for temporary measures. Negotiators agreed to substantial investments in rail, digitalisation and security, to a minimum tax for companies and also green-lighted previous plans for a digital tax on internet giants such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba and Facebook. Under the deal, the incoming coalition agreed to increase the health care budget by 2.5% annually and to raise the minimum pension to €1,500 (gross), including for the self-employed, according to De Standaard.

Address International conference 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Ghent University

The Prime Minister gave a speech on the occasion of the Opening of the International Conference on 75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at Ghent University.