SQ Talk x B19. Breakfast with Pierre Wunsch. National Bank Governor.

Wunsch studied economics at the Catholic University of Louvain and public and international affairs at Princeton University in the United States. From 1992 to 1995, he worked as an assistant and researcher at INSEE and at the École Normale Supérieure. From 1995 to 1996, he worked as an expert with the Federal Planning Bureau. From 1996 to 2000, he was deputy chief of staff to Eric André (PRL), first Brussels State Secretary for Public Works and the Economy, then in charge of Regional Planning, Urban Renovation, Monuments and Sites and Public Passenger Transport. From 2000 to 2001, he was Chief of Staff to the Government Commissioner and State Secretary for Finance Alain Zenner (MR).

He then worked at Tractebel from 2001 to 2004 and at Electrabel from 2004 to 2008. From 2008 to 2011, he was chief of staff to the Minister of Finance Didier Reynders (MR). He was, among other things, director of the financial policy unit and therefore experienced the financial crisis up close.

In June 2011, Wunsch was appointed director of the National Bank of Belgium (BNB). In 2015, he became deputy governor. On January 2, 2019, he succeeded Jan Smets as Governor of the National Bank2, and became an ex officio member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank.

In mid-March 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, Wunsch became co-chairman, together with Piet Vanthemsche, of the Economic Risk Management Group (ERMG), whose aim was to closely monitor the economic situation of the Belgium during the crisis and to act in an advisory capacity to governments.