Insurance Europe

Europe’s first ever Retirement Week opens with a keynote speech by European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness and quick-fire contributions from the associations organising the Week on the key priorities for pensions and trends shaping the pensions landscape.

Helmut Schwarzer has been the public finance economist of the International Labour Organization (ILO) since April 2021 and is currently the officer in charge of the Public Finance, Actuarial and Statistical Services Unit of the ILO Social Protection Department, based in Geneva. Previous positions were researcher at the IPEA (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada), undersecretary for social security and for the Bolsa Familia programme, all in Brazil, as well as specialist for social security in the ILO Social Protection Department and at ILO’s Mexico country office.

Margot Jilet Vesentini has worked for over four years as a policy advisor for Insurance Europe’s personal insurance team, working mainly on pension and life insurance-related issues. Prior to joining Insurance Europe, she represented the interests of various financial services industries in Brussels.

Nicolas Jeanmart is head of Insurance Europe’s personal insurance, general insurance and macroeconomics department. Prior to joining Insurance Europe in 2010, he worked for the European Savings Banks Group, where he held various positions, culminating in four years as head of the banking supervision and economic affairs department. In his earlier career, he provided consultancy and training services, primarily to the financial sector.

Elsa Favre-Baron is a policy analyst in the OECD’s Private Pension Unit, where she analyses private and funded pension systems, with a particular focus on investment strategies and gender differences. Prior to joining the OECD, she spent over 12 years in investment banking, where she started her career as a derivatives structurer before becoming a senior banker covering large European institutional clients.

Ilka Houben is head of pensions policy at the GDV, the German insurance association. Social security issues played an important role from the beginning of her career in 1998 at the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), especially as deputy head of the labour market department. After heading units for other business associations she joined the GDV in 2013.

Anne Nolan is an associate research professor in the social research division, and joint research area coordinator for health and quality of life research at Ireland’s Economic & Social Research Institute. She is also a research affiliate at the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing at Trinity College Dublin and is on the study team management group of the Growing up in Ireland study. Her main research interest is health economics, with a particular focus on healthcare financing and access, socio-economic inequalities in health and Irish health policy.

Aleksandra Mączyńska is the executive director responsible for research and advocacy work of BETTER FINANCE — the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users. She sits on the EC’s Financial Services User Group advising in the preparation of legislation and policy initiatives that affect financial services users. She is also part of the EC Consumer Policy Advisory Group and vice-chair of EIOPA’s Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group. Previously, she worked for the Polish consumer and competition watchdog.