Biography|Filip Van Hool — The January the Board Made Him Chief Executive

On 15 January 2013 the coach-trade press reported that Filip Van Hool had become chief executive of Van Hool NV.

He kept his seat on the board. Operational responsibility for the whole firm now sat with him.

He was the founder's grandson. He had joined the Koningshooikt plant in 1989, reached the executive team in 1999, and become a director of Van Hool and of ABC Companies in 2007.

The appointment ended a long stretch in which Bernard Van Hool's sons had shared power after the founder's death in 1974.

The company framed the markets as difficult and said quality, customer focus, and after-sales service would stay the line.

Under his tenure the firm opened coach production near Skopje in North Macedonia, where wages were lower than in Belgium.

The United States double-decker business, already moving before the title, became a signature export through ABC.

Filip had already collected the 2009 Bus Builder of the Year prize at Busworld in Kortrijk for the family, the first such win since the late 1980s.

The chief-executive title lasted until the commercial court in Mechelen opened bankruptcy on 8 April 2024.

In January 2024 the firm named Mark Zwaaneveld co-CEO beside him, a late attempt to hold the books together.

The attempt did not hold. The plant on this street outlived the family company, under different owners.

Photo: Bert76, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons