Frans Buelens (University of Antwerp) has retired, but works on a voluntary basis for the EURHISFIRM project as well as in managing the SCOB database at the University of Antwerp. In the past he got his Phd in international economics but then switched to financial economic history. As such he worked as senior researcher on the history of the Brussels Stock Exchange, besides teaching some courses in economics. From 1998 on he was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the SCOB database in close collaboration with the computer scientists of the University of Antwerp. In 2010 he worked in close collaboration with Angelo Riva and Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur in adapting the software of the SCOB database for digitizing the Paris Stock exchange. He is the author of several books on issues as the history of the Belgian stock exchanges, the history of Belgian private railroad companies, the history of colonial companies in the Belgian Congo and the Dutch East Indies. His research has been published in academic journals such as Explorations in Economic History, Cliometrica, European Review of Economic History, Bankhistorisches Archiv, Financial history review and The economic history review (for more information, see www.scob.be).