Mw. Mr. M. Olaerts
Mieke Olaerts was born in Genk (Belgium) in 1979. She studied Dutch law at Maastricht University and specialized in commercial and corporate law (2002). During her studies she worked as an intern at the law firm AKD Prinsen van Wijmen in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), in the corporate and insolvency department.
In January 2003, Mieke joined the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University as she became a Phd researcher (Junior researcher) at the department of Private Law. In that same year she was awarded the Ius Commune Prize 2003 for her paper titled: ‘De omzetting van vorderingen in aandelenkapitaal: een metamorfose in het licht van de tweede richtlijn.’ Research topic of this paper was: The dept for equity swap. A metamorphose in the light of the second company law directive. Comparative research containing Dutch, Belgian, French, English and Swiss law.
Her Ph.D. thesis is titled ‘Vennootschappelijke beleidsbepaling in geval van financiële moeilijkheden; de positie van bestuurders en aandeelhouders’ (Corporate restructuring in case of financial difficulties; the position of shareholders and directors) and focuses on the division of powers and responsibilities between company organs when it comes to determining the future strategy within companies in financial difficulties. As a PhD researcher, Mieke Olaerts went on a research visit to the University of Stellenbosch (Stellenbosch, South-Africa) and in 2007 she lectured at the Gadjah Mada University (Yogjakarta, Indonesia) on European and Comparative Company Law during a summer course. She publicly defended her thesis in November 2007.
In September 2007, Mieke was appointed as Assistant Professor at the Private Law Department at Maastricht University. Over the past years she has conducted research mainly in the area of (European) company law and has research experience in het area of company law as well as liability law. Her present and past research is embedded in the research program of ‘Legal Persons in Europe’ of the Ius Commune Research School. Her studies of various areas of European company law have resulted in several publications as well as contributions to books and conferences. In October 2008 Mieke lectured at the Central University of Finance and Economics (Bejing, China), this was combined with a research visit. More recently she co-organized the Conference on Shareholder Democracy held in Maastricht on 18 September 2009 for the Centre for European Company Law of which she is also a member.
At Maastricht University, Mieke coordinates the master course European Company Law (Comparative Company Law in the new academic year) and is a member of the planning committee of the course Comparative Contract Law which she coordinated as well (2008 and 2009). She guides students by supervising bachelor- and master thesis. She is a member of the editorial board of Tijdschrift voor Ondernemingsbestuur (Journal for Company Management) and collaborates in The European Company Law Journal.