The short answer
When a Belgian company appoints or dismisses a director, the decision is filed at the registry of the enterprise court and then published in the annexes of the Belgian Official Gazette; the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/CBE) then shows the current functions. To follow those changes for free, search the Official Gazette by company number and filter on appointments and resignations, check the functions in KBO Public Search, or set free email alerts per company with Staatsbladmonitor. Paid tools such as Data.be and Bizzy send the changes to you. Keep one distinction in mind: the Gazette covers legal mandates (directors, managers, auditors), not job titles. A new head of sales is not in the Gazette; for operational roles, LinkedIn job changes are the faster signal.
Legal director or job title?
In Belgian company law a director (bestuurder, administrateur) or manager (zaakvoerder, gérant) holds a legal mandate: they can bind the company and are liable for its management. These mandates are registered and published. A "Sales Director" or "Director of Operations" is a job title. It is not filed anywhere official, and it changes far more often. Both matter to a sales team, but they come from different sources:
Change | Where it appears | Timing |
|---|---|---|
Appointment or resignation of a legal director, manager or auditor | Annexes of the Belgian Official Gazette, then the functions in the KBO | After the filing at the registry, which often follows the decision by days or weeks |
New CEO, CFO or sales lead without a board mandate | LinkedIn, the company's website, press releases | Often within days of the move |
List of directors at year end | The filed annual accounts at the National Bank | Once a year, with the accounts |
How a director change becomes public
The decision. The general meeting or the board appoints, reappoints or dismisses a director, or a director resigns.
The filing. An extract of the decision is filed at the registry of the enterprise court with the publication form. Since 1 August 2023, the appointment of a director must come with a signed declaration that the person has no management ban in a country of the European Economic Area, under the law on the Central Register of Management Bans. Without it, the registry sends the file back.
The publication. The registry passes the extract to the Official Gazette, which publishes it in the annexes for legal entities, searchable online since 1 July 2003.
The register. The functions shown in KBO Public Search reflect the published change.
The practical consequence: the publication date is not the date of the decision. The published extract states when the mandate starts or ends, and that can be weeks earlier.
Checking director changes by hand, for free
Official Gazette. On the ejustice search page for legal entities, enter the company number and filter the publication subject on resignations and appointments. Each result links to the scanned extract. How to search the Official Gazette walks through it.
KBO Public Search. Look up the company number and open the functions: the current directors, managers and other mandates with their start dates. Consulting is free; reusing or systematically downloading the data is prohibited. The Belgian company register guide explains the fields.
Annual accounts. The accounts filed at the National Bank include a list of directors, managers and auditors. Useful to confirm who was in place at year end. How to read Belgian annual accounts.
That works for a handful of accounts. It does not scale to a territory of a few hundred companies, which is where alerts come in.
Tools that alert you
Tool | What it catches | Price as published |
|---|---|---|
Staatsbladmonitor | Email alerts when a followed company appears in the Official Gazette, including director appointments and resignations; free beta API of 100 requests a day | Free |
Data.be | Email notifications on followed companies, for example a new director or an address change | From 19 euros a month billed yearly, excl. VAT |
KBO Public Search web service | Functions by API from the official source, for teams that build their own monitoring | 50 euros per 2,000 requests |
Bizzy | Official Gazette publications per legal entity, filterable by type (appointments and dismissals, restructurings), plus job changes from LinkedIn as signals, across your lists | Free start; paid plans on request |
Prices read on the vendors' own pages on 30 September 2026. Bizzy is our product; read its line with that in mind.
Why sales teams should care
A new director or managing director often reviews how the company buys: which suppliers stay, which projects go ahead, which budgets move. A resignation can mean the person who championed your offer is leaving. And a new mandate at a small company frequently marks a bigger change behind it, such as a succession, a new shareholder or a restructuring, which the same Gazette search will show. Director changes belong on the short list of buying signals worth acting on.
What to do when you spot one
Read the extract. Check the effective date and whether the change comes with other publications, such as a capital increase or a merger.
Check the rest of the picture. Is the company hiring, growing or consolidating? The filed accounts and open vacancies tell you.
Find the person. A legal director is not always the operational decision-maker; how to find the decision-maker at a Belgian SME covers the next step.
Reach out with the reason. Congratulate, refer to the change and offer something relevant to the first months in the role. Keep the rules on business email and calls in mind.
Before you rely on free Staatsbladmonitor alerts, check that its Gazette feed is current: what Staatsbladmonitor shows and the alternatives explains how, with the other monitoring options side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see who the directors of a Belgian company are? In KBO Public Search under the company's functions, free of charge. The Official Gazette shows each appointment and resignation, and the annual accounts list the directors at year end.
How do I get alerts when a Belgian company changes directors? Free with Staatsbladmonitor, which emails you when a followed company is published in the Official Gazette. Paid tools such as Data.be and Bizzy also notify you, and Bizzy adds job changes from LinkedIn.
Is a new sales director published in the Official Gazette? Only if the person also receives a legal mandate as director or manager. Job titles are not published; follow LinkedIn job changes for those.
What must be filed when a director is appointed? An extract of the decision with the publication form at the registry of the enterprise court. Since 1 August 2023, it must include a signed declaration that the new director has no management ban in the European Economic Area.
Photo: the dome of the Palace of Justice in Brussels under scaffolding, Great11, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons