Patricia Ceysens

Patricia Ceysens (born 5 June 1965) is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) party, being the vice-chairman of the party. She served in the Flemish Government of 2004-2009 as Minister of Economy, Enterprise, Science, Innovation and Foreign Trade. She is currently a representative in the Flemish Parliament.

She graduated in law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1988 and also obtained a degree in Marketing Management from the CMO (now SYNTRA [nl] ) in 1991. From 1989 until 1990, she was an academic assistant at the law school of the university.

Patricia Ceysens started he professional career as a lawyer at the bar in Leuven from 1988 until 1999. From 1990 onwards, she practiced law in Brussels at the office Loeff, Claeys, Verbeke (now Allen & Overy Belgium), specializing in intellectual property rights.

Since 1995 Ceysens is a member of the city council of Leuven. She briefly served as a member of the provincial council of Flemish Brabant in 1995 until she was elected to the Flemish Parliament in 1995. Re-elected in 1999 and 2004, after a cabinet reshuffle, Ceysens became part of the Flemish Government and served as Flemish minister of Economy, Foreign Trade and E-government from June 2003 to July 2004. After the regional elections of 2004, Ceysens became leader of her parliamentary group in the Flemish parliament.

Upon the resignation of Fientje Moerman on 10 October 2007 in the wake of a public procurement scandal, Ceysens again became part of the Flemish Government, taking over the competences of Moerman.