Sophie Manigart
(Vlerick Business School)
Sophie Manigart holds a Civil Engineering and an MBA degree and is Doctor in Management (Ghent University). She is Partner at Vlerick Business School, where she holds the Gimv Private Equity Chair, and is Full Professor at Ghent University. She was Visiting Researcher at Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Guest Professor at London Business School and IE Business School (Madrid).
For more than two decades, Sophie Manigart has researched the financing strategies of entrepreneurial companies, including venture capital, private equity and business angel finance. Her research is published in three books and over 50 academic publications. It enabled her to develop original courses on entrepreneurial finance aimed at both entrepreneurs and investors. She is or has been teaching on this subject at Vlerick Business School, London Business School and IE Business School (Madrid), next to short lectures in business schools around the world. She has published on entrepreneurial finance and venture capital in journals like Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management Studies and European Financial Management. She is Associate Editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, a leading academic journal.
She advised numerous start-ups on their financing strategies and venture capital funds such as Quest for Growth and is a member of the investment committee of Baekeland Fund I and II (spin-off fund of Ghent University). She is consulted as a topic expert by the European Parliament, the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and Belgian and regional governments. Experiencing a gap in the financing of start-ups, she was one of the founders and board members of the first Belgian business angel network, BAN Vlaanderen. She is currently a board member of Gimv (quoted private equity firm), the Belgian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, AXA Belgium (insurance company) and BW Ryhove (sheltered workplace).
Partner, Vlerick Business School, Head of the department Accounting and Finance
Reep 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Full Professor, Ghent University, Department of Accounting and Finance
St.Pietersplein 7, 9000 Gent, Belgium