Louis J. Mercken of Belgium is an international and founding partner in Threon Europe, an international company that provides management consulting and project management excellence education and coaching. A member of PMI since 1995, Mr. Mercken was a member of the global PMI Board of Directors for the period 2002 to 2004, and as PMI Vice-Chair he was a member of the PMI Governance Committee. He was re-elected to the PMI Board for a second term from 2005 to 2007 and in 2005 became the first non-North American PMI Chair. He was the founding vice president of the BMI Benelux Chapter, Belgium, and then the president of the Benelux Chapter. Mr. Mercken is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP^®) and holds a bachelor's degree in economics, an MBA in finance/accounting and operations research and an additional degree in computer sciences. In 1982, he completed the INSEAD Management Program and the IMEDE (Switzerland) extended program for finance for non-finance executives.