William De Vijlder

Group Chief Economist, BNP Paribas, Paris

William De Vijlder, Ph.D., is the Group Chief Economist of BNP Paribas. He began his career in the Economic Research Department at Belgium’s Generale Bank in 1987 and became Chief Investment Strategist in the Asset Management division in 1989. He was subsequently Managing Director and Global Chief Investment Officer at Fortis Investments. When Fortis Investments merged with BNP Paribas Investment Partners in 2010, he became a member of the Executive Committee of BNP Paribas Investment Partners as CIO Partners and Alternative Investments and subsequently CIO Strategy and Partners. In September 2013, he was appointed Vice Chairman of BNP Paribas Investment Partners. Since September 2014 he is Group Chief Economist of BNP Paribas.

William has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Ghent (Belgium). He has been a senior lecturer in Finance and Economics at the same university since 1991.

Since 2008, William maintains a blog on which he regularly comments on the economic and market environment. He also runs a Twitter account where he comments on hot topics in financial markets.

In 2014 William has been selected to become one of the 500 LinkedIn Influencers worldwide.

William is a regular columnist in several newspapers in Europe and makes regular live appearances on CNBC US/Europe/Asia, Thomson Reuters TV, Bloomberg TV as well as other financial TV channels in Europe. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences.