Counter Balance is delighted to announce the appointment of Frank Vanaerschot as our new Director. Frank replaces Xavier Sol, who will remain with Counter Balance as Co-Director until the end of 2022.
Frank brings with him over a decade of experience researching, campaigning and advocating for economic justice. Prior to his appointment at Counter Balance, Frank’s work focused on campaigning for a green, democratic and equitable financial system with Belgian civil society organisation FairFin. This included campaigns to transform Belfius - a Belgian bank nationalised after going bankrupt - into a genuine public bank. Frank has also campaigned to push the European Central Bank and the National Bank of Belgium to stop financing the climate crisis, and to align their actions with climate and environmental needs instead.
Counter Balance is a coalition of nine NGOs whose mission is to make European public finance a key driver in the move towards socially and environmentally sustainable and equitable societies. We launched in 2007 as a campaign to push for the reform of the European Investment Bank (EIB). While the EIB remains our main target, since then we have expanded our work to other EU and public finance institutions.
Counter Balance would like to thank outgoing director Xavier Sol for playing a crucial role in our development over the course of the past decade, and for using his determination and expertise to empower the organisation in holding European public finance to account.