Sven Van Elst

Sven Van Elst studied Germanic languages and literature at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). After his studies, he worked for ten years as a teacher of Dutch as a foreign language at the University of Antwerp and was actively involved in several European projects for the development of foreign language teaching materials.

From 2004 to 2010, he worked successively as a parliamentary assistant in the Chamber of Representatives and as a cabinet member at the Province of Antwerp.

In 2010, he transitioned to the social housing sector as a staff member at the umbrella organisation of Flemish social housing companies, VVH (Association of Flemish Housing Companies), now Initia Vlaanderen. In 2017, he became General Secretary of VVH.

He was actively involved in the preparation and implementation of the ASTER project, which ran from 2018 to 2022 with the support of the European Investment Bank.

In 2022, after a brief period as Operational Director, Sven Van Elst became General Manager of ASTER, a cooperative company of Flemish social landlords, with the primary objective of supporting the sector in making its housing stock more sustainable.