Dear Members and friends,
We have the sad duty to inform you that our beloved honorary member Jean-Marie Vanhouwe passed away unexpectedly last Monday and has been buried today 22-12-2017 in Court-Saint-Etienne. Jean-Marie was 76. After a career as high level consultant in London and later Paris, he became general manager of several international associations, among which the European Marketing Confederation, the European Federation of Management Consultancies Associations and SME Union.
After his retirement, Jean-Marie was founding father of the European Academy of the Regions, of which he became honorary member. He continued to be actively involved in the Academy’s board meetings and shared his valuable experience. He had a significant network in Belgium and in EU circles and was able to attract important members to our organization.
Jean-Marie was married for over 50 years to his wife Arlette, had a son and a daughter and four grandchildren. Both his son and grandson highlighted during the funeral the outstanding intelligence and positive character of Jean-Marie, always looking for new experiences and giving his children and grandchildren an undisputed support in everything they undertook.
We will always remember him as a man with great charm, a great European with an outstanding loyalty and with an enormous impact on the development of our organization. May he rest in peace!
Jean-Marie Vanhouwe (9/8/1941 – 18/12/2017)
