Insurance Europe

Elina Bardram is Director for “Adaptation & Resilience, Communication, and Civil Society Relations” at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Climate Action. She joined DG CLIMA in 2010 and has held different senior and middle management functions in the area of international relations, including as Head of the EU Delegation to the UNFCCC negotiations between 2014-2018.

Between 2003-2010, Elina worked in the Strategy Directorate of the External Relations Directorate-General. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her academic work has focused on the impacts of globalisation.

Petra Hielkema has been chairperson of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) since September 2021. She is also a member of the European Systematic Risk Board’s (ESRB) Steering Committee and general board. In addition, she is also a voting member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors IAIS Executive Committee and the champion of the IAIS Fintech Forum. 

Prior to her current role, Ms Hielkema was division director of Insurance Supervision at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch Central Bank). She joined DNB in February 2007 as a policy advisor, contributing to the development of Solvency II. In 2013 she became head of insurance policy and in 2015 she was appointed as head of the DNB Expert Centre for Fit & Proper assessments. In February 2017 Petra started as director of payments and market.

Wopke Hoekstra is the European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth since 1 December 2024. He leads the European Union's efforts to tackle the climate crisis. He is also responsible for Taxation and co-responsible for the Clean Industrial Deal.

He served in the first von der Leyen Commission as Commissioner for Climate Action from October 2023 to end of November 2024. During this time, he was successful in leading the negotiations for the European Union at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) and Baku (COP29).

From 2011 to 2017, Wopke was a Member of the Dutch Senate representing the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In October 2017, he became the Minister of Finance, a position he held until 2022, also becoming the leader of the CDA in 2020. From January 2022 he served concurrently as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Born in 1975, he studied law at Leiden University, from which he graduated in 2001. In 2005, he obtained the INSEAD MBA degree. Early in his career Wopke held commercial posts at Shell. In 2006, he joined global consulting company McKinsey, becoming a partner in 2013.

Conny Kalcher is a customer-centric leader with over 30 years of experience across multiple industries, identifying how best to put customers at the heart of a successful business. She joined Zurich in July 2019 as Group Chief Customer Officer, where she heads the Customer Office and has the responsibility for leading customer loyalty and advocacy within Zurich’s global brand and marketing teams. Since her start, she has developed customer strategy for Commercial Insurance and Retail, while also being the main driver behind other initiatives such as the successful launch of the Zurich customer portal and transformative customer initiatives across sales, distribution, and marketing. She is also a board member of the Z Zurich Foundation.

Conny is a founding partner of the NPS and Loyalty Forum and known for her ability to drive customer-focused change, build high-performing teams, and create innovative solutions that deliver long-term business growth. Her expertise includes brand development, customer experience design, customer insights, customer relationship management, and digital transformation.

After a long career at LEGO Group, where she led Customer Marketing projects and divisions, she joined Mindfolio in 2018 as partner. Mindfolio is an analytics and innovation consultancy with offices in London and Chicago.

Conny holds a degree in International Marketing and has completed executive education programs at INSEAD, IMD, Harvard and the London Business School.

Born in 1964 in Udine, Italy, and a graduate in Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Giovanni Liverani has dedicated his entire career to the insurance sector, distinguishing himself through strategic vision and international leadership.

His journey with the Generali Group began in 1991 in the Research Department at the Trieste headquarters. In 1993, he co-founded Genertel, the first online insurance company in Italy. At Genertel, Liverani held various board-level positions, playing a key role in the development of sales, marketing, and operations, and making a decisive contribution to the company’s market success.

From 2006 onward, his profile expanded on the international stage with his appointment as Area Manager for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He subsequently took on increasing responsibilities, becoming CEO of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and ultimately serving as CEO of Generali Deutschland AG, the second-largest insurance company in Germany.

In this role, Liverani led an ambitious industrial turnaround plan, characterised by significant financial, operational, and commercial restructuring. As a result of this transformation, the German business unit strengthened its position as the second most important within the Generali Group globally, both in terms of premiums and profitability.

In December 2024, he was appointed President of ANIA, the Italian Insurers’ Association, following his appointment as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Genertel—marking a symbolic return to the company he had helped found thirty years earlier.

Before joining the European Commission in 1999, Tilman Lueder was as an associate in Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP. He worked on European and German antitrust and merger control issues.

His first job in the Commission was that of a case manager dealing with antitrust and state aid cases in the area of post and telecommunications in the Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP). In 2002, he became the spokesperson for Commissioner Mario Monti, responsible for Competition, a position he successfully held until being appointed, in 2005, Head of the Copyright Unit of the Directorate General for the Internal Market (DG MARKT).

He pursued his career to become Head of the Asset Management Unit (2011-2015) in the Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA). From August 2015 to September 2024, Tilman headed the Securities Markets Unit in DG FISMA.

As of September 2024, Tilman heads the Insurance and Pensions Unit in DG FISMA. He holds a doctorate in law from the University of Tübingen.

President of CNseg, Dyogo Oliveira is an economist and holds a master's degree in Economic Sciences from the University of Brasília (UNB) besides an MBA in International Negotiations and Foreign Exchange. He has held important positions in the federal government, such as Minister of Planning and Development; President of Brazil’s state-owned development bank, BNDES; and Executive Secretary of the Ministries of Finance and Planning. Also in government, he was a member of the National Private Insurance Council (CNSP) and the National Supplementary Pension Council (CNPC).

Dyogo has been responsible for formulating and implementing the structuring of the economic area, including (i) establishing the federal government's spending ceiling; (ii) pension and tax reforms; (iii) the release of FGTS and PIS/PASEP funds (iv) the creation of the Growth Acceleration Program (CAP); (v) "My House, My Life"; (vi) the taxation of profits made by companies abroad and (vii) the privatisation of IRB Brasil-RE.

Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), a Professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and co-chair of the secretariat of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force. As France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, she was one of the key architects of the landmark Paris Agreement. She later served as the UN High-Level Champion for climate action through COP22.

Laurence brings decades of expertise in climate change, energy, and sustainable development, working across government, think tanks, NGOs, and academia. She serves on France's Haut Conseil pour le Climat, an independent advisory body providing scientific guidance on the country's climate policies, and co-chaired the governance committee of France's Citizens' Climate Convention in 2019, ensuring its independence and ambition.

She founded and directed the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), and has a long association with Sciences Po Paris. Her work has been recognised with numerous honours, including the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Shackleton Medal in 2023 and the title of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2024.

Thea Utoft Høj Jensen is director general of Insurance Europe, the European insurance and reinsurance federation. Previously, she served as senior managing director and head of financial services in Brussels at FTI Consulting, where she provided strategic advice on financial services policy. Thea held the position of financial services counsellor for the Danish Permanent Representation to the European Union, where she led Council negotiations at attaché-level for Denmark at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) and represented Denmark's interests on key financial services issues.

Her experience also includes serving as a special advisor on EU affairs at the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and as a policy officer at the European Commission. Thea holds a Master of Arts in Law from the University of Copenhagen. She is also a passionate advocate for women's rights, diversity and equality in the workplace, championing equal opportunities within the financial sector.

Chris Yeates is the Public Sector Business Development Lead in Guy Carpenter’s Public Sector Practice. Prior to joining Guy Carpenter, Chris was Senior Strategy Advisor at Pool Re, the UK Government’s public-private terrorism reinsurance scheme.

Chris has also worked out of the Insurance team at the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade, supporting public-private initiatives to address environmental and man-made risks, and has spoken internationally on the critical role of (re)insurance in risk sharing to achieve a resilient future.

Thierry Léger began his career in the civil construction industry before joining Swiss Re as an engineering underwriter in 1997. In 2001 he moved to Swiss Re New Markets, providing non-traditional (or alternative) risk transfer solutions to insurance clients. Between 2003 and 2005 he was a member of the executive team in France as leader of the sales team.

From 2006, Thierry assumed increasing responsibility for Swiss Re’s largest clients, ultimately becoming the Head of the newly-created Globals Division in 2010 and a member of the then existing Group Management Board. In 2013, He became Head of Life & Health Products Reinsurance. As of January 2016, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer Life Capital and member of the Swiss Re Executive Committee.

In September 2020, he assumed the role of Group Chief Underwriting Officer. He joined SCOR as Chief Executive Officer on May 1, 2023.

Thierry is a dual French and Swiss citizen, holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) and an Executive MBA from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Frédéric de Courtois is AXA Group Deputy CEO and a member of the Group Management Committee. In this capacity, he is in charge of Group Finance, Operations, Strategy, Risk and Underwriting.

Prior to being named Group Deputy CEO in August 2021, Frédéric worked at Generali for five years, where he held a number of senior positions, including General Manager of the Group overseeing most central functions and the implementation of strategy. Before that, he held a variety of positions in AXA in finance and in the business for 23 years. He was Deputy CEO of AXA Re and AXA Corporate Solutions (2000-2003), Chief Financial Officer then Deputy CEO of AXA Japan (2003-2007), and CEO of AXA Italy, Greece and Serbia (2007-2016). Frédéric began his career in 1990 at CGI before joining UAP as an M&A expert in 1993.

He graduated from Telecom ParisTech in 1990 and Collège des Ingénieurs in 1991. He is an actuary.