Most people on this board will be familiar with the infamous comment by Katrien Meire: "I don't care about the past history of the club." (Charlton Athletic) - made in an interview with Belgian newspaper L'Echo on the 28th September 2015. This comment was pre-fixed with the words: 'I shouldn't say this but..........
Ever since Meire was subsequently awarded a prestigious award by her former University (KU Leuven) in March of this year a campaign has been waged to get Meire to apologise for this insult to the club and its fans or have the comments (which are professionally and academically unacceptable as well as being irresponsible) brought to the attention of the Leuven University given that those academics who voted for her in the election for the prize award were unaware that they had been made and they may instead have voted for a more worthy candidate had this been the case.
You may well ask why this is important? IMO Meire is using Charlton - with the club's fortunes being secondary to her own ambitions. Remember, whatever happens at Charlton she will probably walk into another job (either within the Duchatelet network or outside of it) claiming that her experience in being CEO and the kudos and awards which come her way as a result were recognition for her keen business sense and aptitude.
The KULeuven VRG Alumni Prize is an annual prize and is a prestigious one awarded by the Belgian University to a former student of the Law Dept who has gone on to achieve high things.
The previous winners include a Belgian Attorney General and an Ambassador. It is clear that Meire 'won' her award on the back of being made the CEO, at a young age, of a business in England (irrespective of the method by which Duchatelet parachuted her in).
Therefore, when Meire, who was contacted direct about this matter, refused to apologise on the club website, the University were notified of the challenge to her award.
Last month, after many torturous e-mails and letters under the banner of CAST the head of the KU Leuven (Professor Rik Torfs) effectively disowned the University from the award decision making process. In a letter, he now claims that the awarding committee for the prize is independent from the University and resides solely with the VRG Alumni 'organisation'. In other words he is distancing the University from the award even though those making it all hold academic posts at the University.
The whole thing therefore still rumbles on with the focus now switched to the committee of the 'independent' VRG-Alumni.
However the hope is that for some in her circle of peers in Belgium at least Meire is not viewed through the same rose-tinted glasses as previously and that ultimately this award will not be one which she can wheel out in future without the whiff of it being tainted because we note that the issues raised have not been erased on Goggle
This of course does nothing to help the plight of Charlton Athletic but why should Meire benefit so undeservedly from her actions at this club when, by her own admission, she shouldn't have said what she did, and now resolutely refuses to apologise for it?
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Yes, I audit Solicitors for work
Presumably every practice she worked for realised she was toxic and useless fairly quickly
She is therefore not entitled to practice in this jurisdiction.
Correct above re no more formal COD requirements for solicitors.
the criteria for receiving the VRG-Alumni award from the Law Dept at KU Leuven have nothing to do with achieving excellence in the field of law (although one recipient in around 2005 did so by becoming Attorney General in Belgium). It's more to do with high achievement in any field but with the background of a law degree.
Some of the previous winners have done truly remarkable things but the KU seemed to love Meire because she was appointed to a senior position as a woman and at a young age in an area very different to European competition law which she studied quote: She is a living example that you can strike the most diverse ways with a law degree, that can quickly and gender nor age there today to have to stand in the way, even in bastions where it remained until recently very tough hurdles . (Goggle translation) Although we all know that she was appointed by Duchatelet on the basis of a speculative e-mail and that her CEO post is a sinecure whereby she can do and say as she wants without censure - even go on holiday during the season if it suits her.
You will get the picture that Meire with this award can move in some very elevated circles in Belgium (the Alumni members at this level might be thought of perhaps as academic freemasons although that term probably does them a disservice, however - the award would undoubtably open some doors for her if Duchatelet ever did let her go.
I think the KU know in their heart of hearts that they got blind-sided on this one (hence the desire of the governor/rector of the Uni to distance it from the decision making process) but to admit a failing in their process now would be too embarrassing one suspects and the assumption is that they will try to ride it out until the next award of 2017 when they can forget about the rick they made with Meire.
will add the names when I get back.
But as far as I can determine, lawyer is one of those terms you can use if you simply work in the law or have a legal background, so it means very little, a bit like the term 'accountant'.
As ever with this one, it's all superficial.
yes your campaign against Meire's bid for the EFL post was taken up by others and would have brought her shenannigans (no jokes please) to the attention of the League 1 and 2 clubs which, apart from the fact that she was forced to withdraw, is no bad thing.
IMO it is important to keep chipping away at Meire's efforts to gain respectability in the football world whenever she raises her head above the parapet because she should not be allowed to inflict her poisonous brand of administration on another football club once she has finished with ours and the more that people find out about her the better.
With regard to her undeserved VRG-Alumni award and prize (I assume monetary though don't know for sure) the vote was taken in secret by the board of directors of the VRG-Alumni vzw.
I don't know how many are on the VRG board but the principal names are:
Chairman: Prof. Dr. Roger Blanpain
Secretary: Prof. Dr. Robbie Tas
plus Dr. Dimitri Droshout (Head of Law Dept. at KU who gave the eulogy at the prize giving).
It was evidently a majority vote so it cannot be automatically assumed that those named above necessarily voted for Meire.
It was disingenuous for the KU Rector to say that the decision making was nothing to do with KU. Whilst the address of the VRG-Alumni is separate (Tiensestraat 41, box 3438, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium) there is clearly a quid-pro-quo with kudos going to the recipient and the KU getting the credit for its excellence of teaching and rather tellingly don't you think..................
the e-mail of the VRG-Alumni is vrgalumni@kuleuven.be
In your recent and only response to date, you state that the board of directors (of VRG-Alumni) was aware of what you have termed ongoing discussions between Mss Meire and a part of the Charlton supporters. You have chosen however to ignore the main arguments within our previous letters and the very pertinent reasons why we were bringing those to your attention.
Indeed. we made it very clear that we were bringing to your attention not some ill-defined discussions but several proven matters where Mss Meire has demonstrated poor judgement (leading in one case to the censure of the Club by the British Advertising Standards Authority). We also provided you with documented evidence of the very unprofessional behaviour of Mss Meire in her conduct as CEO at Charlton when she made comments in a Belgian newspaper which not only may be considered disrespectful but are academically unsound and unbecoming of one who is an alumna of the KU Leuven. We provided the dates and evidence of when these matters occurred – both of the above examples were in 2015 prior to the award of the Alumni Prize to Mss Meire in March 2016.
We firmly believe that, as an academic body, the board of VRG-Alumni should have had cognisance of Mss Meire’s comments in Belgium (if not perhaps the events in England) and that the comments made by her should have been a material consideration in the award process.
We further believe that had the voting board members been aware at the time that Mss Meire is on record in Belgium as saying “Je ne devrais pas le dire, mais je me fous de l’historie du club’’ that they might have considered this as an impediment to the award. This was no faux pas but a calculated and dismissive insult and we asked quite legitimately in our first letter to you whether she was equally dismissive of the near 600-year history of the University which nurtured her?
We believe that we should have the right to present our evidence relating to all of the above to the board of directors in an academic hearing. Following which it would be a matter for you whether a fresh vote should be taken. It appears from your letter that you are to deny us that opportunity and are choosing to ignore the presentation of the evidence which could lead to the VRG-Alumni award for 2016 being awarded to a worthier recipient - for example the runner-up in the voting process who is therefore denied this opportunity.
We have no real wish to challenge the VRG-Alumni award beyond the point of reason but may we remind you that in our initial letter (copied to Mss Meire) we stated that if she were to make a public apology for her comments in Belgium (which she herself accepted she should not have said) then that would have ended the matter there and then. Katrien Meire chose not to do so which has led us on the path today where we consider that you may have to accept that the 2016 VRG-Alumni Prize to Katrien Meire is tainted.
That's an excellent email you have reproduced above. Well done!
I do think that, in this case, as we are trying to reverse something that has happened (as opposed to trying to stop something happening, as with the EFL Board vote), we should not overload the VRG-Alumni voting board with emails (most of which will ultimately say the say things about NightMeire). Keep up the pressure, and if there is a suitable time to add to your great work on this matter, then that is the time for fellow CAFC supporters to add weight to your arguments.
The real thing we were looking for in all of this was a public apology from Meire for the things she knew she shouldn't have said and this matter illustrates yet again that she is so full of herself and arrogant that rather than apologise (when the offer was made for her to do so) she chose to let her former Professors and the Rector of the KU spend the time involved re-examining the vote and justifying it (which they patently failed to do).
Should mention that the more recent e-mails (including extract somewhere above in the thread) were sent to the L'Echo newspaper the original interviewers of Meire in Brussels where she thought she could say what she liked even to the extent of saying things which were for the CEO of a business anywhere in the world were downright irresponsible and juvenile.
I cannot believe that when this was made known to those who taught her and those that voted for her award that they did not sigh and shake their heads.
Katrien Meire should not be feted in Belgium for her disastrous handling of the CEO post at Charlton and the things she has said about the club and its fans and we should not lose any opportunity to expose her shortcomings for the sake of this club and any other club in the football family which might have the misfortune to have her coming through the door.
Aside from anything else, I genuinely believe it would have been detrimental to Charlton as a club to have her as a representative on the EFL board or any other footballing body. She has shown her lack of credibility as a CEO and she should be trying to mend the mess she has created at the club rather than start telling others how to run theirs.
The reality is that were she a middle-aged man she never would have got near the CEO job at Charlton, let alone still be there. But she is young, flirtatious, and part of Duchatalet's social experiment to break the mould. Some may say that comment is sexist, but look at her track record. What other explanation can there be?
If she had any humility, she may have looked at the sorry sight before her and realised what a destructive force, both she and of course the mad owner have been. It is an inescapable conclusion that she has been a complete failure. The arrogance of these two is unbelievable. Othello said - give me the ocular proof. Her failure is not debatable, it is there for all to see!!!!! Supporters who have loved the club for most of their lives, many decades. Brought up to be Charlton fans by loved ones lost, echoes of Killer Hales and Johnny Summers. They are not going to games anymore. Supporters with Charlton mottos inked on their person, with memorabillia all over their houses, who live, sleep and breath the club are at war with the one they love. The destruction these people have caused is incredible, and they seem oblivious to it.
Simon Jordan once said his ambition was to buy Charlton, then shut it down. I would say Miere and Duchatelet are doing a far better job than he ever could. At least death by Jordan would have been short rather than torturous. And still they show they have no shame and continue. It isn't about money - they have thrown that away. They have ruined a great institution and deserve no awards just condemnantion.
The one thing Meire has proven is that she has no intelligence, no class, no compassion, no integrity, no sense of shame and absolutely no humility. She is riding out time to benefit her CV and nothing else.
She looks down on football fans thinking they're beneath her. She has this arrogant self importance (self delusional grandeur) because she is 32 and holds the position of CEO. They're not as intelligent or educated so they're worth less than her (despite many being far more qualified and experienced to do the job in a much more successful fashion).
The pressure on her from her "customers" needs to be escalated and I'm not talking about beach balls or smoke bombs, I'm talking about things like the excellent work @Coyotejohn1947 has started by getting her university to sit up and take notice and the multi-thousand signature petition to get her de-elected from the EFL board. The forged signature on the Companies House document was genius and I am told she is fuming that the Trust has started running cheaper coaches to away games (I'm sure she's asked Cajones to look to see how it can be stopped). Another great idea was to visit her parents house (peacefully), this proves we're not all neanderthal, racist knuckle-draggers (as she assumes us all to be).
I'm all for a loud and proud protest, but I think she gets more upset and aggravated by things that affect her personally (things she clearly isn't intelligent enough to prevent).