André, Baron Vlerick (1919–1990) was a Belgian politician, businessman, professor and founder of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. He graduated in economy at the University of Ghent and was appointed at the University of Leuven as well as the University of Ghent as Professor of Economics. He founded the department of regional economy at the University of Ghent.He is also the founder of Protea, a pro-apartheid Belgian organisation which assisted the South African apartheid government in money laundering and circumventing sanctions through KredietBank. Vlerick's lobbying efforts extended to a pan-European formation called Eurosa. In addition to Protea in Belgium, there were “sister organisations” in Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germ