Career
He started textile plants in Paris (1799) and Ghent (1800). In Ghent he was also mayor for one year. As a leading industrial, he was visited by Napoleon in 1810 and awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur"Honneur.
He is remembered in Flanders for bringing the textile industry, and thereby the Industrial Revolution, there.
The spinning mule that was brought to Ghent can still be visited, in the Museum for Industrial Archeology and Textile (MIAT).