Alain Bastin
Company
BIL Manage Invest
Position
Chief Executive Officer
A Life in Harmony
The financial world can sometimes be dissonant. But Alain Bastin draws on his passion for music to create harmony through his appropriately-titled role as Chief Executive Officer of BIL Manage Invest S.A.
Finding meter in métier
Alain Bastin has always had a creative streak; he played in bands from the age of 14. Had he not found his métier in finance, he admits he would have been happy to apply his artistic aptitude to working with wood or with food. Looking back Alain wishes he had exploited his creative facets earlier is his career: “I would have gotten into the business side of my operation sooner – I enjoy the entrepreneurship side of work.
Two sides to his story
At work and in his down time there are clearly two sides to Alain’s persona: the creative, and the “hands on” aspects. At work he began his career in the more constrained and practical “nuts and bolts” of finance by being employed in risk management and audit. Today he has progressed to the more creative and entrepreneurial role as CEO and Conducting Officer of BIL Manage Invest.
When he is relaxing he loves to pick on his Stratocaster Custom guitar to create a sound he describes as “aged and raw”. On the other hand, as an audiophile, he takes huge pleasure, not only listening to one of his favourite musicians, like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Mark Knopfler, but also using his sophisticated sound equipment to extract the best technical sound from the record to which he is listening.
Team spirit
Despite admitting to being “difficult to access at first”, Alain is no loner. He stresses in his faith in “team spirit”. The advantage of working in a team was something he gained being part of a band and, later, commanding a group of soldiers while performing his military service. Today that theme chimes not only with his personal credo that, “There nothing can be achieved without a team,” but also with the BIL Manage Invest’s expressed value of “Partnership instead of commercial relationship”. He further engages in collaborative activity as a founder & Board Member of ALRiM, the Luxembourg Association of Risk Managers. Alain believes in turning life’s successes and failures into opportunities. “Both professional and personal failures lead to an open mind and to broadening horizons”, he says. With this in mind, he seeks to use his personal experience and outlook to perpetuate the idea of trusted partnership to the advantage of BIL Manage Invest. He says while he may initially be a bit unapproachable personally this ultimately leads to trusted relationships. Thus he believes that by building trusting and harmonious relationships with clients he can ensure they gain access to the full range of other services the BIL group has to offer.
Facts & Figures
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Birthday: 13/01/1965
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Place of birth: Charleroi, Belgium
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Nationality: Belgian
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Languages: French, English
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Hobbies: Guitare, Blues, Running
My favourite
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Cities: Barcelone, Singapore
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Restaurants: Ku De Ta (Singapore)
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Places: The Royal Albert Hall - Liquid
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Music: Blues
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Artists: Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Slash
Other position
Independent Director in UCITS and AIF structures.