In its forty-five years of existence, Asset | Econometrics has granted honorary membership to five members. These members have delivered a contribution to our association of great importance.
Jan Bogers (Founder) (no portrait available)
Dr. J. Bogers
Founder Tilburgse Econometristen Vereniging (TEV)
Honorary Member since 1979
Four fourth-year students, Annemie van de Ven, Jan Bogers, John Smits, and August Swanenberg, took the initiative, after it turned out that there were too few activities focused on students in econometrics. When founded, the goal of the association was to advance the contacts between students, their peers, and teachers; soon, the companies joined as a third party. At the start, there were a few committees, such as a committee for organizing excursions, and there was a magazine called ‘Cirkel’ (a precursor of Nekst). Already in 1980, the amount of members of TEV exceeded 100. In 1983, students could buy books at TEV, which caused another large increase in the number of members. In 1983, the first excursion abroad was arranged to Germany. Later on, all kinds of study tours were organized to, for instance, Paris, the USA, and more recently to Seoul, Hong Kong, Athens, Japan, and Mexico. In 1984, the first ‘praktijkgeluidendag’ took place, a predecessor of the Master Experience Day, which was organized in 1998 for the first time. Furthermore, in 1984, the first conference was organized. In 1987, the Wim Bogers Stichting (Foundation) was founded for these conferences, named after the late Drs. W.A.J. Bogers in order to honor the man who contributed a lot to econometrics in Tilburg. In 1988, the ‘Cirkel’ was renamed to ‘Tristichon’. Four years afterwards, the magazine was renamed to ‘Nekst’, as it is still called nowadays.
The other four honorary members can be found in the cards below:
Ton van Dorp
Drs. A.M. van Dorp MTD
Former treasurer and chairman of Asset | Econometrics
Honorary Member since 1991
Ton started his studies in 1987 and in that same year became a member of
Asset | Econometrics. At that time, the association was still known by the name of Tilburgse Econometristen Vereniging (TEV). In that time, the association was in a bit of a crisis - it was difficult to find board/active members, and the enthusiasm amongst students to participate in the activities was not as great as it should be.
Ton became a board member in 1989 as treasurer, with Eric Snoeren as the chairman in that year. One year later, Ton was asked to become chairman of the board. During these 2 years, the board teams worked, with an increasing number of active members, to breathe new life into TEV. The association regained a good reputation amongst the students and, as a result of that, since the early nineties, has always been able to attract capable, active, and board members. The foundation that Ton with his fellow board members laid down in these years allowed for the association to move on, on its path toward the flourishing association that we know today.
Nowadays, Ton works for Deutsche Post DHL, where he combines the roles of operations controller for the EMEA region and commercial controller for the Middle East, both for the DHL Supply Chain division. His office is in Bonn, Germany, and he lives in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Also, he is married. Last year, he even made an appearance during the Career Perspectives event to talk about how he got there!
Pieter Ruys
Prof. Dr. P.H.M. Ruys
Former chairman Wim Bogers Stichting
Honorary Member since 2002
Hein Fleuren
Prof. Dr. Ir. H.A. Fleuren
Former chairman Wim Bogers Stichting
Honorary Member since June 2008
Hein became an honorary member of the association in June 2008. The reason? He organized and accompanied the study trip to Rome. It was due to him that the students got to visit the headquarters of the World Food Programme, an initiative of the United Nations. This is, of course, an opportunity of great honor, and it eventually led to his honorary membership.
In 2019, Hein founded the Zero Hunger Lab together with his co-founder, Mr. Perry Heijne. The Zero Hunger Lab is a research laboratory based at Tilburg University that uses mathematics to realize worldwide food security. Nowadays, Hein is the director of the Zero Hunger Lab, next to being a professor of applications on business analytics. Some of you might even see him during the lectures of Professional Business Analytics Skills!
Jochem Bruijninckx
MSc. J. Bruijninckx
Former chairman and treasurer of Asset | Econometrics in 2017 - 2018
Honorary Member since September 2022
Jochem Bruijninckx was Treasurer during the 2017/2018 academic period, a challenging year in which the board continued with four members after the discharge of its Chairman. He took on the Chairman’s responsibilities in addition to his own role and, together with the remaining board members, invested significant effort to guide the association through the remainder of the year in a stable and positive manner.
During his board year, Jochem developed the Career Platform Tilburg (CPT), a website used by all departments of faculty association Asset to centralise career events, opportunities and company profiles. The platform was a big step forward in the association's efforts to provide students with more insight into the career paths their econometrics degree can lead to, while also becoming an important source of revenue for the association.
In the years since his board membership, Jochem has stayed engaged with the association, both as a member of the Advisory Council and through additional support where needed. He currently works as Tech Lead on an Operations Research project focused on improving rosters for healthcare workers across Europe - a role he found on the CPT!