In August 2016, a few years after my retirement from the Leiden University, a Dutch legal foundation carrying my name (‘Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection’) was founded at my initiative. The statutory object of the foundation is to promote the interest and knowledge of international and comparative restructuring and insolvency law. For Dutch tax purposes it is acknowledged as a charitable organisation (ANBI).
The foundation was initially managed by an international board, consisting of five law professors: Prof. Matthias Haentjens and Prof. Reinout Vriesendorp (acting as Chairman and secretary/treasury respectively, both of Leiden University), Prof. Eric Dirix (Belgium), Prof. Ian F. Fletcher (who sadly passed away in July 2018) and Prof. Stephan Madaus (Germany).
Currently, the composition of the board is as follows: Prof. Reinout Vriesendorp and Gert-Jan Boon (acting as Chairman and secretary/treasury respectively, both of Leiden University), Prof. Juanita Calitz (South Africa), Prof. Stephan Madaus (Germany), Smitha Menon (Singapore), Dr Paul Omar (England), Dr. Neeti Shikha (England), Prof. Joeri Vananroye (Belgium).
The foundation has acquired the larger part of my private collection of books and other media in the field of national and international insolvency law (the ‘library’). It aims to secure, maintain and expand this collection for the future, provide access to it for national and international students and researchers and to organize related activities for a broad, general public.
For this reason in 2018 the foundation concluded an agreement regarding the custody and management of this unique collection with Leiden University. The Law Library of the Leiden Law School now holds one of the largest collections on insolvency (bankruptcy) law in Europe. (See: Opening of the ‘Bob Wessels Collection’.)
Please visit the official BWILC website here: www.insolvencylawcollection.org