Career
As a young trainee, he joined Brown, Boveri & Cie (British Broadcasting Corporation) Workshops in Brussels. In 1988, British Broadcasting Corporation merged with Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget, to become ABB Asea Brown Boveri. In 2001 he left ABB and became the Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of Picanol, a world-wide leader in textile machinery and related services.
In 2003, he became Chairman of Belgacom, the Belgian national telephone company which he led to an IPO, working closely with its owner, the Belgian Government.
In 2004, the press revealed the level of his incomes from Picanol. These incomes were judged greatly excessive by the press, considering the usual Belgian remunerations for the functions of upper management.
The lack of transparency was also pointed out, in particular by company"s minority shareholders. Facing growing criticism, January Coene was forced to resign from both Picanol and Belgacom in October 2004.
He accepted to reimburse ten million euros to Picanol (which because of the height of the sums reserved for January Coene had become financially unhealthy) but kept 12 million.
The affair became a political issue in Belgium and a bill was introduced in Parliament (the "Picanol law") to force big companies to publish the remuneration of their upper management personnel. In the meanwhile, the affair also shed another bad light on the Network of Vlerick-Boys, a circle of business men with low moral standards who all studied at the Vlerick Management School. The circle entertains business connections and helps its members to get in the direction committees of Belgian industry.
As one of the only remaining "clean managers" January Coene was named president of the alumni of the Vlerick Management School.
But he also had to quit presidency after the 2004 Picanol scandal. January Coene is married with 2 children.
