Insurance Europe

Financial journalist & broadcaster, UK

Iona Bain is a broadcaster, financial journalist and founder of “Young Money”, the first British website dedicated to young people’s finances.

A regular presence on TV and radio in the UK, including BBC Morning Live, ITV Tonight and BBC Radio 1’s “Life Hacks”, she is also regularly quoted in national and online press and writes a weekly column for the i online newspaper.

President
Insurance Europe

Chairman & CEO
UNIQA Insurance Group, Austria

Andreas Brandstetter holds a master’s degree (1992) and a PhD (1994) in political science from the University of Vienna, including a one-year scholarship at the University of California, San Diego.

In 1993, he joined the cabinet of the then vice chancellor of the Republic of Austria, before becoming managing director of the Austrian People’s Party. In 1995, he was appointed head of the EU office of the Austrian Raiffeisen Association in Brussels and Vienna.

Brandstetter joined the insurance industry in 1997 as assistant to the CEO of UNIQA’s predecessor company, becoming the member of the management board responsible for international markets and mergers and acquisitions in 2002. In the same year, he finished his MBA at California State University, Hayward/IMADEC. In 2011, he was appointed chairman and CEO of UNIQA Insurance Group.

He was elected president of Insurance Europe in May 2018.

President
National Association of Insurance Commissioners, USA

Director
Idaho Department of Insurance, USA

Dean Cameron has been director of the Idaho Department of Insurance since 2015. Since his appointment, he has been actively involved in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and he is currently the NAIC President.

Cameron was an insurance agent for 32 years. He has 30 years’ experience in state government with 24 of those serving in the Idaho State Senate. During his time in the Senate, he chaired the Health Care Task Force, the Commerce and Human Resources Committee, which handles banking and insurance issues, and served as co-chair of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, the state budget committee.

Editor-in-chief
InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com, USA

For 17 years, Paul Carroll was a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal, where he wrote about information technology. He left to become a partner at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants. For the past eight years, he has been the editor-in-chief at InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com, a digital platform that drives innovation in insurance.

He is the author of numerous books. In 2008, Paul and Chunka Mui published “Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn From the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years”, based on 20 researchers’ two years of analysis of 2 500 corporate disasters. Most recently, Carroll, Mui and Tim Andrews published “A Brief History of a Perfect Future: Inventing the World We Can Proudly Leave Our Kids by 2050”.

Carroll was the writer on the US National Broadband Plan, which the Federal Communications Commission submitted to Congress in 2010, and on a report at the US Department of Energy later that year on its $36.5bn innovation initiative as part of the Stimulus Act.

Carroll and Mui run a boutique consulting firm, the Future Histories Group, which stress tests corporate strategies.

President
Czech Insurance Association

Chairman & CEO
Kooperativa pojišťovna, VIG, Czech Republic

Martin Diviš joined Kooperativa in 1996. From 1999, he was responsible for advertising strategy, sponsorship and PR. In 2001, he became director of the marketing and communications department. In 2005, he was appointed senior director and member of Kooperativa’s top management and a year later he became deputy CEO. Since 2008, he has been chairman of the board of directors and CEO.

Diviš is also the president of the Czech Insurance Association (ČAP) and vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Czech Insurers’ Bureau.

Group CEO
Assicurazioni Generali, Italy

Philippe Donnet graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1983 with a degree in engineering and then went to the Institut des Actuaires where he completed his studies in 1991.

Between 1985 and 2007, he held various positions in the AXA Group, most recently serving as regional CEO Asia Pacific, Singapore. In 2007, he became the managing director for Asia Pacific at Wendel Investissements, Singapore. In 2010, he co-founded the investment management company HLD in Paris.

In October 2013, Donnet joined Generali as country manager Italy and CEO of Generali Italia. In this role, he spearheaded the process of merging the Generali brands in Italy. He became group CEO of Assicurazioni Generali in 2016 and was appointed chairman of Generali Italia the same year.

From 2008 to 2016, Donnet was member of the supervisory board of digital entertainment company Vivendi. From 2013 to 2016, he was on the board of Banca Generali. From 2016 to 2017, he was deputy chairman of ANIA, the Italian insurance association and he was chairman of the MIB Trieste School of Management from 2015 to 2018.

Global head of regulatory & public affairs
Allianz Group, Germany

Claudia Donzelmann is the global head of regulatory and public affairs at Allianz Group. She started her career in 1991 with Dresdner Bank and joined Allianz in 2006 as head of reporting and planning. She has since been head of corporate citizenship, chief of staff in the USA executive office, head of supervisory oversight and head of the group CFO office.

Donzelmann has an MBA from ESMT Berlin and a diploma in banking from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Member of the European Parliament
European People’s Party, Germany

Markus Ferber has been an MEP (DE, EPP) since 1994. During his time in office, he has served in multiple high-profile roles and takes a keen interest in financial services legislation. Currently, he serves as the coordinator of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

President
Global Federation of Insurance Associations

President & CEO
Insurance Bureau of Canada

Don Forgeron is serving a two-year term as president of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA) and has been president and CEO of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) since 2009.

He has worked in the property and casualty insurance industry for over 30 years, joining IBC in 1993. He worked for Alberta’s Department of Environment and the National Research Council in Nova Scotia early in his career.

Group chief economist
Swiss Re Institute, Switzerland

As group chief economist for Swiss Re, Jérôme Jean Haegeli is responsible for economic and insurance market research. He leads research teams located in Zurich, New York, Bangalore, Beijing and Hong Kong and is the managing editor of Swiss Re’s “sigma” research publications.

Haegeli served as co-chair of the World Bank’s Global Infrastructure Facility Advisory Council and sits on external committees at the Institute of International Finance and the World Economic Forum. He is a board member of the Global Asia Insurance Partnership and the International Capital Market Association. He also serves as director of the board of the China Asia-Pacific Reinsurance Research Center.

He was previously head of investment strategy at Swiss Re’s proprietary group asset management arm. Before joining Swiss Re, he was the Swiss National Bank’s delegate on the executive board of the International Monetary Fund and senior economist at the Swiss National Bank, UBS Warburg and Bank Julius Baer.

Haegeli has a PhD in economics from the University of Basel, a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s department of economics.

Chairperson
European Insurance & Occupational Pensions Authority

Hielkema took up her role as chairperson of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) in September 2021. She is also a member of the steering committee of the European Systemic Risk Board and of the executive committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. This year, she is chairing the joint committee of the three European supervisory authorities (EIOPA, EBA and ESMA).

Previously, she was division director responsible for insurance supervision at De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank, which she joined in 2007. In 2013, she became the bank’s head of insurance policy. Then, in 2015, she was appointed head of its expert centre for fit and proper testing, assessing supervisory and management board members in the financial sector. In 2017, Hielkema became director of payments and market infrastructures and was responsible for payments and collateral operations, oversight, policy and cyber intelligence.

Prior to that, Hielkema had an international career in the oil and gas industry. She has master’s degrees in law and economics and in Russian studies.

Secretary general
Insurance Development Forum

Ekhosuehi Iyahen is the secretary general of the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), a public-private partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by the World Bank and the United Nations that aims to enhance the use of insurance to build greater resilience against disasters and help achieve the UN Global 2030 Agenda.

Iyahen has extensive experience of working with governments, international development agencies, private sector entities and academic institutions on public financial management and strengthening risk management and financing systems.

She has been directly involved in establishing regional risk pools in Africa and the Caribbean and structuring an agreement between the IDF, the UN Development Programme and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to increase insurance protection in 20 climate-exposed countries.

Iyahen is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Harvard University and was appointed a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council in 2021.

Deputy director general
Insurance Europe

Olav Jones has been deputy director general and director, economics and finance at Insurance Europe since 2011.

He is a member of the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).

He studied both engineering and finance and started his career with financial services consultancy Oliver Wyman. He then spent 15 years working for Prudential, Fortis and Ageas in roles related to risk, capital management and strategy, most recently as group chief risk officer.

European Commission Vice-President for values and transparency

Věra Jourová has been vice-president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency since 1 December 2019 and previously served as the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality from 2014 to 2019. Before this, she served as a Member of the Chamber of Deputies between 2013 and 2014 and as the Czech Minister for Regional Development in 2014.

Professor Yoshi (Yoshihiro) Kawai is chair of the OECD Insurance and Private Pensions Committee, chair of the Global Asia Insurance Partnership (GAIP), advisor to the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, Government of Japan, and a member of the International Advisory Council, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. He is also a professor at Kyoto University and Tokyo University.

Kawai was secretary general of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) from June 2003 to November 2017. He joined the IAIS in 1998 as deputy secretary general. During his time at the IAIS, he was a member of the Financial Stability Board (formerly Financial Stability Forum) from 1999 to November 2017.

He gained his PhD in insurance in 2000 from City University, London. His PhD was preceded by a BA in Education and Sociology from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Director general
Insurance Europe

Michaela Koller has been director general of Insurance Europe since 2007. She is currently secretary general of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations and chairs the Insurance and Reinsurance Stakeholder Group of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA).

Prior to joining Insurance Europe, Koller was a member of the management committee of the European Savings Banks Group and the World Savings Banks Institute.

She holds a law degree from Augsburg University.

Member of the European Parliament
Renew Europe Group, Czech Republic

Ondřej Kovařík is a Czech MEP, member of the Renew Europe Group. He is a member of the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and in that capacity is the chairman of the Working Group for Access to Finance for SMEs. He also sits on the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. His portfolio extends from transport and tourism to border management, research on and the practical use of new technologies ― for example those based on artificial intelligence ― and broader access to and use of digital finance for businesses and consumers. He is currently working on several files on energy taxation as well as the Social Climate Fund.

Kovařík previously held various roles in the Czech civil service and in European public administration, specifically at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the Government, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ottawa and the Czech Ministry of Defence.

President
France Assureurs

Florence Lustman has been president of the French insurance federation, France Assureurs, since 2019. She was previously chief financial officer and public affairs director and a member of the executive committee of France’s Banque Postale.

From 2007 to 2012, she headed the team providing interministerial leadership of France’s Alzheimer Plan and promoting it internationally on behalf of the French president.

Between 2000 and 2007, she was general secretary of the French Insurance Supervisory Committee (Commission de Contrôle des Assurances).

Head of public sector Europe, Middle East & Africa
Guy Carpenter, USA

Ruth Lux is based in London and leads Guy Carpenter’s Europe, Middle East and Africa public sector solutions practice, which was established in 2014 as a response to the growing imperative for governments and public entities to identify and transfer risk to the balance sheet of the private (re)insurance market. She also leads Marsh McLennan’s global taskforce for public-private partnership solutions for pandemic risks.

Lux is an expert in geopolitical risks and has been involved in many international public sector initiatives. Prior to joining Guy Carpenter, she was head of political and terrorism risk analytics at JLT Specialty and before that she founded and headed up a political risk consultancy, providing risk analytics and risk transfer strategies to companies across all sectors and working closely with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Home Office.

She holds a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics.

President & CEO
American Council of Life Insurers

Susan Neely is the president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), whose member companies hold 95% of the US life industry’s assets and serve 90 million families.

Neely has extensive experience in public policy and advocacy in Washington, D.C. Before joining the ACLI, she spent 13 years as president and CEO of the American Beverage Association. Prior to that, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush, working on the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. She has also been senior adviser to two members of the US Congress, as well as to Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa.

A native of Iowa, Neely holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and French civilization from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in public administration from Drake University. She is vice-president of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations and serves on the B20 Financial and Infrastructure Task Force.

Vice-president
Insurance Europe

Group chief insurance & investment officer
Assicurazioni Generali, Italy

Sandro Panizza was appointed group chief insurance & investment officer of Italy’s Generali Group in March 2021 and is a member of the group management committee.

He joined Generali in 2013 as group chief risk officer, having previously been managing director and chief financial officer first of Alleanza Assicurazioni from 2004 and then of INA Assitalia from 2010. His career has focused on financial services since he began working for Intesa San Paolo (formerly IMI) in 1983, becoming head of risk management, and then moving to Banca Fideuram, where he was responsible for strategic planning, budgeting and management control.

Panizza has an MBA from Bocconi University, Milan and a degree in economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza.

Sectoral secretary
Insurance Supervision Agency, Slovenia

Mojca Rome, a certified actuary, joined the Insurance Supervision Agency of Slovenia (Agencija za zavarovalni nadzor, AZN) in 2000. Since then, she has been responsible for the supervision of life insurance and pension products and for the supervision of the insurance undertakings and institutions for occupational retirement provision in Slovenia.

She was a member of a team who prepared legislative proposals for changes to Slovenia’s Insurance Act, including secondary legislation, and of a team of experts who prepared its new Pension and Disability Act for the regulation of supplementary (occupational) pension insurance business.

Since 2019, Rome has been an alternate member of the board of supervisors of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and she has been a member of its Advisory Committee on Proportionality since September 2020.

Rome holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical science from the University of Ljubljana, where she also completed postgraduate actuarial studies.

Senior technical adviser
Prudential Regulation Authority, UK

Alan Sheppard is a senior insurance advisor in the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), specialising in strategy, external engagement and policy. He was head of PRA insurance policy from 2016 to 2020 and previously worked at Aviva and in the Bank of England on capital markets, financial risk management and financial stability.

Executive director, financial market supervision
Czech National Bank

Zuzana Silberová graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Masaryk University in Brno and completed her PhD studies at the University of Economics in Prague. She is also a certified internal auditor.

She joined the Czech National Bank in 1994. She was appointed director of the insurance supervision division in 2006 and worked as deputy executive director of financial market supervision from 2008. Since February 2017, she has been executive director of the financial market supervision department.

She was an alternate member of the boards of supervisors of the European Banking Authority and European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) from 2011 and has been a member of both boards since 2017. Since 2018, she has been a member of EIOPA’s Management Board. She has also been a member of EIOPA’s Supervisory Steering Committee since 2018 and Quality Control Committee since January 2020.

Head of international, department vice-president & counsel
American Property Casualty Insurance Association

As head of international and the vice-president’s department for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA), Stephen Simchak oversees engagement on global regulatory and trade issues. He also manages APCIA’s research department.

Simchak is chair of the cyber risks working group of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA). He serves as an industry advisor to several US government agencies and previously served in two congressional offices.

He has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College, a master’s degree in global politics from the London School of Economics and a juris doctor degree and certificate in World Trade Organization studies from Georgetown University. At Georgetown Law, he was a fellow of the Institute of International Economic Law.

Minister of Finance, Czech Republic

Zbyněk Stanjura co-founded the company ESKON in 1992, where he worked for 11 years as a programmer and director.

Interest in his hometown led him to municipal politics. He was a representative of the city of Opava for 17 years and its mayor from 2002 to 2010. He was elected three times as a representative of the region of Moravia–Silesia, where he served for 11 years, including eight as a councillor and 10 as chairman of the regional group of ODS, the Civic Democratic Party.

In 2010, he was elected to the Czech Parliament. He was chairman of the ODS parliamentary group from 2011 to 2021 and from December 2012 until August 2013 he served as Minister of Transport. In December 2021, Stanjura was appointed Minister of Finance.