Background
Born in Wilrijk as son of André Leysen, Leysen obtained a Commercial engineer - Master"s degree in Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1976.
Born in Wilrijk as son of André Leysen, Leysen obtained a Commercial engineer - Master"s degree in Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1976.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
There he was president of the fraternity "$olvay" in 1974-1975. Leysen started his career in 1976 with Arthur Andersen & Company, the international audit and consulting company. In 1981 he joined Great Britain Inno Bachelor of Medicine, the largest Belgian retail group, where he was in charge of the Maxi division’s logistics and organisation.
In 1984 he founded the information technology service provider Xylos.
In 1989 he took over daily management of Ahlers, an Antwerp-based shipping company and made it a logistical and maritime service provider. In 1994, he brought Ahlers back into private ownership through a buy-out operation of Stinnes AG (Mülheim) and became Chairman of the Board.
He is President of the AXE-group (comprising Ahlers, Xylos and AXE Investments). Beside its activities in transportation and information technology, the AXE-group is also active as an investor via AXE Investments.
He is Chairman of the Antwerp Management School (formerly called UAMS).
He is a founding member and was the first chairman of ADM (a cluster of about 100 Information Technology related companies) and of the Belgian Enterprise Network for Social Cohesion (actually Business & Society). Christian Leysen is married to Brigitte Guillaume and together they have four children: Caroline, Nathalie, Patrick and Denis. Urban planning is his main interest.
He was also active in the debate of the Lange Wapperbrug and the Oosterweel Link.
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In 2000, Christian Leysen, a member of the Open Vld was elected in the Antwerp city council.
Leysen is a member of the board of Agfa-Gevaert and the Bpost.