Professor Elvira Haezendonck (VUB) first female world president maritime economists

Professor Elvira Haezendonck (VUB) is the first female president of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME)

Professor Elvira Haezendonck (VUB) is the first female president in the 30-year history of the global association of maritime economics academics. At the congress of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) in South Korea, the members elected Elvira Haezendonck as the new president with a large majority of votes.

This is not only an important academic honor, but also a first. “In the association’s 30-year history, I am the first female president,” Haezendonck said. “The Council and vice presidents are also gender-balanced, setting an example to the maritime business community.”

Elvira Haezendonck is professor of sustainable port strategy at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and visiting professor at the University of Antwerp (BE) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL). The association’s secretariat is handled by Professor Dr. Michaël Dooms (VUB).

Big shoes

The president’s term of office runs from 2022 to 2024. In her inaugural speech at the general assembly at the conclusion of the congress, Haezendonck thanked her predecessors Thanos Pallis (University of Athens) and Jan Hoffman (UNCTAD Switzerland). “They leave big shoes to fill, but fortunately I have big feet that give me confidence. With the board of directors, we are taking up the challenge to further professionalize our organization. We are already looking forward to next year’s congress in Los Angeles.”

Theo Notteboom

Belgium is very well represented in the organization of maritime economists. Haezendonck is the second Belgian to become president: from 2010 to 2014 – the maximum of two terms – the IAME was chaired by Theo Notteboom, professor at the universities of Antwerp and Shanghai. At the conference in Busan in mid-September, he was named vice president of IAME. Incidentally, Notteboom received the Best Paper Award there with some Italian colleagues for the paper ‘Green finance in bulk shipping’.

Speaking with UN and IMO

The IAME was founded in 1992 and grew to more than three hundred individual members and over a dozen affiliated organizations. The association is officially affiliated with the leading academic journals Maritime Policy & Management and Maritime Economics & Logistics.

The IAME maintains good contacts with the UN, IMO and other organizations and companies in the maritime world, among others.

This post Professor Elvira Haezendonck (VUB) wereldvoorzitter maritieme economen appeared first on Flows News site – Roel Jacobus (September 25, 2022).