Five graduate students will spend a day with prominent Belgian CEOs

For the sixth year in a row, Odgers Berndtson is organising the original event that offers top students the unique opportunity to spend a day at the side of a well-known Belgian CEO.

By leveraging the talents of Odgers Berndtson’s team of executive search experts, five Solvay Brussels School graduate students have been selected through the CEOx1Day (CEO for a day) programme to spend a day on the job shadowing these five prominent CEOs in February/March:

  • Julien Schmetz with Christina Foerster, Member of Executive Board of Lufthansa Group (and former CEO of Brussels Airlines)
  • Viktor Van Eeckhoudt with Olivia Natens, Country Director Benelux of Medtronic
  • Alexandre Lefin with Hilde Vernaillen, CEO of P&V Insurance
  • Amaury Casselman with Sophie Dutordoir, CEO of SNCB/NMBS
  • Lara Soggiu with Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay

The participating students will have the opportunity to learn about the level of responsibility and the complexities faced by today’s leading executives, while also getting a feel of how these leaders create value in their organisations. This initiative also gives students an opportunity to link in-class learning with real-world situations, and equips them with extra tools and skills to start building their careers.

“Spending a day with a CEO is a unique opportunity, learning more about myself through the Hogan Assessment and the interviews, and the positive feedback from last year’s students were the main reasons why I applied for the programme”, said participating student Amaury Casselman, who will be shadowing SNCB/NMBS CEO, Ms Sophie Dutordoir.

For the CEOs, this is also an excellent opportunity to connect with the next generation of leaders, understand what drives them and capitalize on the energy, insights and fresh ideas of the bright Belgian youth.

 “While CEOx1Day is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students to be inspired by some of Belgium’s seasoned business minds, the programme is also a way of connecting today’s top leaders with the next wave of change”, said Luc Wouters, Managing Partner at Odgers Berndtson Belgium.

Odgers Berndtson’s CEOx1Day is organised in several countries. Find out more about CEOx1Day in Belgium on www.ceox1day.be