Charles Fabri - Chairman of the Board of Petrofina

Born in Huy in 1873.

Law studies at the University of Liège. He started in the family bank Fabri-De Lhonneux, where he became manager and which he renamed Banque Fabri et Cie.

During the First World War, he was appointed administrator, then general manager of the Banque d'Outremer, which he developed. In 1922 he took over all the securities of the General Fund for deferrals and deposits. He subsequently entered the board of the Société Générale de Belgique, which had absorbed Banque d'Outremer, and which became his thing, to the point of being drawn into the collapse of the Dutch bank Mendelssohn on the eve of the Second War World.

Then he met Émile Francqui, president of Petrofina. The latter brought him into Petrofina to assist him in negotiations with European financial circles. He succeeded him at the head of Petrofina in 1932. A recognized financier, he aroused much hostility. In particular, he fought a fierce battle against Paul van Zeeland, Prime Minister, during the 1930s, whom he suspected of having speculated on the devaluation of the Belgian franc. He died in Paris in 1938.