Who are the most recently appointed directors and C-levels? May highlights several nominations among which a woman has become CEO of a leading bank company.

ING Belgium

Pinar Abay

This month, ING has given additional space to women on its Board of Directors. Indeed, Pinar Abay has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors. In its 150-year history, it is the first time that the bank ING elects a woman to occupy this position.

She succeeds Diego du Monceau, who has reached the age limit of the Board, of which he was a member since 1993 and chairman since 2020.

Back in 2016, Pinar Abay was first appointed as a non-executive member of the Board of Directors. Since January 2020, she has been a member of ING’s Management Board Banking and Head of Market Leaders, responsible for Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Previously, she was CEO of ING in Turkey. Prior to joining ING in 2011, she worked at McKinsey & Company in Istanbul, San Francisco and New York, serving international banking clients.

Furthermore, the Board has welcomed new members: Hilde Laga as non-executive member, Ronald Oort as non-executive member and Peter Göbel as a member of the Executive Committee.

Belfius Insurance

Daniel Falque

In our previous newsletter, we informed you on the nomination of Belfius Insurance’ new CEO: Frederic Van der Schueren. This month, Daniel Falque has been appointed non-executive member of Belfius Insurance’s board of directors.

Throughout his career, he led the Belgian branch of KBC for 12 years until 2021. Before joining KBC, he held an international position at Deutsche Bank, after starting his career at the Belgian insurer De Vaderlandsche.

Currently at Belfius Insurance, he also participates in the group’s Technology Committee.

Marc Raisière, CEO of the Belfius Group, welcomes a “common vision” of bancassurance and values. He praises an experience that will allow to pursue “the growth in the field of bancassurance”.

Daniel Falque, for his part, underlines the leading position of Belfius in “digital financial distribution”. He concludes by underlining his enthusiasm to help Belfius fulfill “its long-term strategic and societal objectives”.

AXA Belgium

Serge Martin (left) – Antoine Boyer de la Giroday (right)

At the beginning of May, AXA Belgium announced the appointment of Serge Martin, their current Chief Life & Health Officer as the new Chief Distribution Officer. He takes over Jean-Philippe Vandenschrick’s position who is leaving the group AXA to pursue a new personal project.

Serge Martin holds a Master in Actuarial Sciences (KULeuven) and a Master in Economics (UFSIA). He started his career in insurance at Mercator and Noordstar, where he specialized in life insurance. After broadening his professional experience in companies such as KPMG, Aon, PwC and Insurope, Serge joined AXA Belgium in 2013 as Chief Risk Officer. He was then closely involved in the implementation of the Solvency II regulation. In 2015, he was appointed ‘Deputy CFO’, responsible among other things for accounting and reinsurance. In 2018, he was appointed Chief Life & Health Officer of AXA Belgium.

Another change in AXA Belgium is the fact that Antoine Boyer de la Giroday, current Director of Management Control of the AXA Group, is joining the Executive Committee of AXA Belgium as Chief Life & Health Officer. He developed his passion for the insurance industry during his consulting years and decided to join AXA Belgium in 2015. Since then, he held various positions within the Finance team and the Life Business Unit, before joining the AXA Group in early 2020 as Group Controlling Director.

All these appointments will take effect on 1 July 1 2022 and are subject to the approval of the National Bank of Belgium (BNB/ NBB), the Belgian financial supervisor.

Allianz

Eric Brys

Allianz has appointed its new P&C commercial director, Eric Brys. The latter is replacing Frank Gheysen who is leaving for Piette and Partners (PNP).

Erwin Brys knows Allianz inside out and has already several years of experience in the Belgian commercial team. In recent years, he has focused on corporate clients, but prior to that he was an underwriter for the retail and SME clients.

Assuralia

Chris Staes

Recently, a number of new faces has joined the Assuralia’s Board of Directors.

In particular, Chris Staes (Managing Director HDI Global SE) was unanimously appointed as a Director to replace Ed Goos, who had previously resigned from the Board.

In addition, the Board also unanimously approved the appointment of Frédéric Van Der Schueren (CEO of Belfius Insurance) as Director and member of the Executive Committee. He replaces Dirk Vanderschrick on the Executive Committee and the Audit Committee of the federation, and will also act as chairman of the Fraud Commission.

The Board of Directors was also honored to welcome a new candidate for membership in the Federation, Monument Assurance Belgium, which will of course benefit the representation rate.

On June 13, 2022, the General Assembly will meet, an important moment since the President, Hilde Vernaillen, and the Vice-President, Etienne Bouas-Laurent, are coming to the end of their mandate. Both are candidates for succession in their current positions.

Sources:

• Assuropolis, Daniel Falque, ex-dirigeant de KBC, nommé chez Belfius Insurance
• L’Echo, Daniel Falque, de KBC à Belfius Insurance
• Assuropolis, AXA Belgium: Serge Martin est nommé ‘Chief Distribution Officer’, Antoine Boyer devient ‘Chief Life & Health Office’
• Assuropolis, Erwin Brys devient directeur commercial P&C chez Allianz
• L’Echo, Pinar Abay, une femme à la présidence d’ING Belgique
• Assuropolis, ING Belgium : Pinar Abay devient la présidente du Conseil d’administration
• Assuralia acceuille de nouveaux membres