EricDe Bolle

Eric PMM De Bolle is a Belgian entrepreneur who has spent more than three decades founding and running companies in trade, energy and technology. Educated at a Rudolf Steiner school in Belgium and at Souderton High School in the United States, he learned early to think independently and to feel at home in another culture. He went on to study business at the Hogere Handelsschool in Antwerp, and he has built his career on that combination ever since.

He started his first company, Trading and Consulting Services NV, in the early 1990s and grew it into one of the leading IT distributors of its time. He then moved into energy, founding Oil Thrust, a trading platform for illiquid energy markets, and CB Bitumen FZE, which supplies bituminous products to customers worldwide. He is managing director of IB Trading Corporation in Antwerp, co-founded EcoSolve as its CFO to bring water and air recycling technology to market, and is Group CEO of African Information Technology Group, an internet services company.

Today he works with Marthe Dumortier NV in Wijnegem, near Antwerp. Through MD Trade the group sources and trades soft commodities such as green coffee, cacao and sugar, often directly from origin; through FloorHouse it runs flooring retail in Belgium.

The common thread is simple: read the market, structure the money, and build the relationships that let a deal close.