Knighthood for Prof. Chris de Neubourg of Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
06 Dec 2007
Professor Chris de Neubourg, Academic Director of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) at Maastricht University, has been awarded a knighthood. He was made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau at the official opening of the MGSoG’s new building on 30 November 2007.
The decoration is awarded to people who have earned special merit in society. De Neubourg was awarded the honour for his groundbreaking academic work and for his services in establishing innovative, socially important programmes at Maastricht University.
A native of Antwerp, Belgium, Professor De Neubourg started his academic career studying philosophy and sociology at the University of Antwerp and at UCL in Louvain. He obtained his PhD in 1986 from Groningen University with a dissertation on Unemployment, Labour Slack and Labour Market Accounting: Theory, Measurement and Policy. In 1999, he established an innovative study programme in International Economic Studies at Maastricht University, a programme which would prove to have a major impact on the international profile of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
He is currently Academic Director of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, which trains young academics from around the world in public policy analysis. As Europe’s first school of governance in the American tradition, its establishment in Maastricht provided a great boost not just to the international appeal of the university, but also to the city and the region. Chris de Neubourg’s motives for establishing the School of Governance in Maastricht were based on professional and idealistic convictions. His idea was to offer young people a real opportunity of a first-class study programme, which would enable graduates to make their own contribution to a better system of public administration and corporate governance with improved efficiency, sustainability and harmony. In 2004, he was asked by the university’s Executive Board to set up the MGSoG.
At the request of the World Bank, De Neubourg advised the Bulgarian government on labour market and social security issues between 1992 and 1995. This was his stepping stone to a second career as a consultant on international projects relating to poverty, social security and labour market policy. He has also worked for the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Labour Organization, bodies of the UN and national governments.