Georges Theunis

Georges Theunis, an engineer and businessman born in 1873, was prime minister of Belgium from 1921 to 1925 and again from 1934 to 1935, and minister of finance from 1920 to 1925. He began his career in the Empain industrial group, headed the Belgian wartime provisions commission in London during the First World War, and represented Belgium at the Paris Peace Conference and on the Reparations Commission. In 1927 he chaired the World Economic Conference in Geneva. As a regent of the National Bank of Belgium from 1926 he stood for the influence of the large private banks, and during the Second World War he served as a special ambassador to the United States before being appointed governor of the National Bank of Belgium in exile in London from 1941 to 1944.