Joseph Lemaire

Joseph Lemaire (born March 18, 1882 in Liège , Province of Liège , Belgium , † July 4, 1966 ) was a Belgian insurance manager and chairman of the socialist insurance company La Prévoyance Sociale , who was awarded the honorary title of Minister of State in 1963 .

biography

Lemaire began his professional career in 1907 with the recently founded cooperative socialist insurance company La Prévoyance Sociale . After he became the company's inspector in 1909, he took office as director and board member in 1912. In 1925 he was appointed general director of the company.

As such, he campaigned in the years that followed to ensure that the company's profits were not paid back to the insured, but reinvested . At his suggestion, La Prévoyance Sociale established a network of social institutions that was accessible to everyone. Among other things, he commissioned the establishment of a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers in Fort Solières in Huy and a sanatorium named after him in Overijse-Tombeek .

In 1955 he was finally chairman of the board of La Prévoyance Sociale . He was also vice-president of the Belgian Red Cross and a member of the board of directors of the Belgian National Office against Tuberculosis.

On April 5, 1963, he was awarded the honorary title of Minister of State. He was the first minister of state who had not previously exercised a single political mandate.

literature

M. Radelet: Joseph Lemaire, een groot leven, een groot werk , 1978