Jean Van Milders

Jean Van Milders (Geel, 13. November1924 - Knokke-Heist, 20. June 2011) was a Belgian businessman. Besides this, he was also ten years the president of soccer team AA Gent.

Business carreer

Van Milders was a talented entrepreneur. He managed to develop the Brewery Brouwerij Van Milders situated in Geel, which he had inherited together with his brothers from his parents, to a sound company and he introduced the abbey beer Tongerlo in the market. 1970 the brothers sold their brewery and started bottling Coca-Cola. As from 1976, they were catering Carestel-road restaurants.

Van Milders sometimes spoke out very strange expressions about his entrepreneurial management.A good one-liner of his was: "As a child, what did we know about money? Nothing at all! And now, I've got grandchildren playing with their money on the stock markets."

President of AA Gent

As from July 1988 to 1998,Van Milders was he president of AA Gent. This soccer team was just degraded out of First Division and the team had a heavy burden. Van Milders used his rich bank account to help the team financially.

In soccer, this meant a large difference at AA Gent. He transfered some well-known players to the team, making the way of playing more attractive. After a number of years, the team played European games again. 1992 the quarter finals of the UEFA_Cup was reached. This was the best European result under his guidance. In the Belgian competition, it didn't work out so well the next years, but the foundations of the successes ere laid. Those were achieved under his successor Ivan De Witte.