Nicolas Brenninkmeijer joins HOST as a PhD student on the project “Wealth inequality and its intergenerational persistence in Belgium (19th-20th centuries)”. He is supervised by prof. dr. Wouter Ryckbosch at the VUB, and profs. drs. Gerline Verbist & Bruno Blondé at the University of Antwerp, as part of the wider “Ancestor’s Tale” project. Previously, Nicolas was a private equity investor specialising in entrepreneur-led businesses in the Benelux. He left this career in 2021 to embark on a new adventure, initially by completing an MSc in Economic History at the London School of Economics, and to follow a deeply-held passion for economics and history.
“May you live in interesting times” is a Chinese proverb which sounds like a blessing but is actually a curse as times that are “interesting “are often tumultuous and uncertain. As we live through the end of neoliberalism and American hegemony, I firmly believe that contributing to our understanding of the historical factors behind inequality is fundamental for creating the conditions necessary for our civilisation to continue to thrive.