Galileo’s main focus has been advisory services in Europe and Asia, with a particular focus on emerging markets such as India and China. More recently, a series of assignments led Galileo to deepen its knowledge of climate change initiatives, including ESG investments. 

Prior to Galileo, Mr. Ugeux was the Group Executive Vice President, International & Research, at the New York Stock Exchange. He built and managed the Exchange’s International Group and, during his tenure, spearheaded the listing of 308 companies from 43 countries, out of the 470 non-US companies listed on the NYSE with an aggregate value of $2.7 trillion. During that same period, the NYSE’s international trading moved from 40 to 140 million shares per day.  

Mr. Ugeux is a Lecturer in Law at Columbia University School of Law, where he teaches the seminar “International Banking and Finance: the challenges” and leads a reading group on Brexit. He is a frequent visiting professor at La Sorbonne University Paris I and has guest lectured at the Catholic University of Louvain, from which he holds a Doctorate in Law and is Licentiate in Economics, and the College of Europe in Bruges. He served as a Special Advisor to the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School and currently sits on the Board of Polyfinances, the financial vertical of Montreal-based Polytechnique Technical University. Mr. Ugeux is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Emerging Markets Institute of Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson School of Management. In 2021, he became Chairman of the Board of the Institut Droit et Croissance, an independent research institute that aims to promote a joint law and economics approach.

Mr. Ugeux, a Belgian and US national, began his career in 1970 at Société Générale de Banque (now BNP Paribas Fortis), the leading Belgian bank, where he became General Manager of the investment banking and trust division. His career led him to London in 1985, where he served as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Mergers and Acquisitions Department. In 1988, he was appointed Group Finance Director of Société Générale de Belgique, the leading Belgian diversified industrial and financial conglomerate owned by the French company Engie (formerly Compagnie de Suez). In 1992, he became President and Managing Director of Kidder, Peabody Europe while serving as a member of the Management Committee and Board of Directors of Kidder, Peabody, Inc. In that capacity, he was also a member of the European Corporate Executive Council of General Electric.

From 1995 until joining the NYSE, Mr. Ugeux served as President of the European Investment Fund, a Euro 2 billion public-private partnership created by the Heads of State and Government of the European Union Member States at the Edinburgh Summit. He also chaired the Kingdom of Belgium’s Privatization Commission.

Mr. Ugeux is also a trusted adviser to corporate and governmental advisory entities. He is a Board Director of Avant Corporation, a Japanese business solution company, and a member of the financial committee of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. Mr. Ugeux also sits on the International Advisory Boards of Guangzhou Municipal Board for International Investment, the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Oxford Analytica and APCO Worldwide. Until 2018, he served as director on the board of AXA Tian Ping Property & Casualty, a joint venture insurance company in Shanghai that was fully acquired by AXA. He was also a member of the Investment Committee of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady in Africa.

Mr. Ugeux is a widely sought-after public speaker and author in the United States and in French-speaking communities around the world. As a speaker, Mr. Ugeux has participated in numerous prestigious international panels and keynote events and has been praised for his candor, clarity, and ability to deconstruct complex issues while offering a perspective that is both fresh and forward thinking. In 2018, he presented a TEDx Talk, “This New World (dis)order,” at the controversial TEDxBrussels. 

As an author, Mr. Ugeux has published a number of non-fiction works in English, French, Flemish, and Chinese. In 2019, his “La Descente aux enfers de la finance” – published by Odile Jacob and featuring a preface written by Jean-Claude Trichet – was received with tremendous success. “International Finance Regulation: The Quest for Financial Stability” was published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons in its Finance Series. In 2011, he published “The betrayal of Finance: Twelve reforms to restore confidence” in French, English and Flemish and was updated and published in Chinese by Oriental Publishing in Beijing. Mr. Ugeux has also published a fiction mystery novel entitled In “The Flying Dragon.” Published by Archway Publications in 2015, the French version, “Le Dragon Volant,” was later published by Edilivre. In 2021, Mr. Ugeux published his newest work, “Wall Street ‘s assault on Democracy: how capital markets exacerbate inequality.”

Mr. Ugeux is also a frequent blogger. He was invited by Le Monde to write a regular column entitled “Demystifying Finance,” which was immediately awarded “Best Economic Blog” by Challenges, a leading French magazine. Subsequently, he was invited to write for Huffington Post in the United States. Additionally, Mr. Ugeux publishes frequent posts in Medium and CLS Blue Sky Blog (Columbia University). His frequent media interviews span mediums and continents, most notably in the United States and on French-speaking TV and radio and in written news in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada. 

A native French speaker, Mr. Ugeux is also fluent in English, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and German.