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End of the year’s appointments in Belgium

Qover

Parker Crockford, left and Johannes Hertz on the right (Qover)

Parker Crockford becomes the new Chief Revenue Officer of Qover, the leading InsurTech scale-up in Europe. His joining will be essential to improve the company’s go-to-market strategy and partnership ecosystem, ready to broaden its offering across new sectors.

Experienced as a global leader within B2B companies and Fintechs at international level, Parker’s goal is to show “new disruptive players the power of insurance and how it can create immense value for their business”. He qualifies Qover’s culture as “incredibly client-and-sales focused and really tr[ying] to have a positive impact on the world”.
As for the company’s future, its CEO and Co-founder Quentin Colmant shared his impressions about Parker and said “I look forward to seeing him take our growth to the next level as Qover’s CRO”.

Another recent move within Qover is the appointment of Johannes Hertz, the new Chief Financial Officer. His years of experience as CFO (Brainloop and later INCOPRO) will be an asset in terms of key strategic decisions for the company’s growth.

AXA Belgium

From left to right, Gunter Uytterhoeven, Etienne Bouas-Laurent and Camille Audet (AXA Belgium)

Camille Audet will start a new adventure within AXA Belgium as Chief Customer & Data Officer on 1 January 2022. She will be taking over Gunter Uytterhoeven’s position, who will be joining AXA Partners & AXA Next’s executive team as Chief Customer & Innovation Officer.

Camille Audet’s first working experience in the financial sector began at Belfius where she evolved with various marketing and sales position for 5 years. She also worked at BNP Paribas Fortis during 4 years, working in Digital, Customer and Sales Experience. As for her career within AXA, she joined the company firstly as Head of Insights and became Digital Director in 2019. In 2022, given her new status she will be managing Insights, Value Proposition, Digital, Online Sales and Communication activities.

Regarding Gunter Uytterhoeven, he joined AXA in 2015 firstly as Chief Marketing Officer & Head of Transformation before occupying the Chief Customer & Data Officer position. He highly contributed to the company’s boost as well as the innovation and digitalization’s development.

AXA Group

Octavie Dexant, left and Mirjam Bamberger, right

From left to right: Octavie Dexant and Mirjam Bamberger (AXA Luxembourg, photomontage Maison Moderne)

On 15 January 2022, Octavie Dexant will be the new Executive Director of AXA Luxembourg and AXA Wealth Europe. She has been a member of AXA group since 2010 and has worked as Deputy Managing Director AXA/ING partnership since 2018.

As for Mirjam Bamberger, her predecessor, she will be leading AXA’s strategic development for the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain and Mexico as the new CSDO (Chief Strategic Development Officer). She is also joining the managing team for European and Latin-American’s markets.

Ethias

Philippe Lallemand, Ethias CEO, and the Executive board are strengthening the company’s Executive committee to accelerate the group’s development and meet its ambitions.
Subject to the National Bank’s approval, here is the new composition of the committee:

Philippe Lallemand, CEO & Executive Director of Ethias SA and Chairman of the Executive Board of NRB, an IT & Technology subsidiary of the company group.
Wilfried Neven, Vice-CEO, Chief Customer Experience Officer and Executive Director of Ethias SA.
Nicolas Dumazy, Chief Strategy & Data Officer
Luc Kranzen, Chief & Claims & Delight Officer
Joris Laenen, Chief Investment & Life Officer
Izabella Molnar, Chief Digital Transformation Officer
Maryline Serafin, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of Ethias SA.
Benoît-Laurent Yerna, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Director of Ethias SA.

As for other Ethias key members, the current Vice-CEO, Benoit Verwilghen will take over EthiasCo’s general management and Cécile Flandre, whose mission as CFO was successful, will take up new challenges outside of the group.

NN Belgium

Frank Eijsink (NN Group)

Frank Eijsink, current CEO of NN Life Japan since 2017, evolves as the next NN Belgium’s CEO once the Belgian National Bank approves his appointment. On 1 February 2022 he will take over his predecessor’s role, Jan Van Autreve, who decided to leave the Dutch group.

Over the course of his career, Frank Eijsink worked a few years at ING and occupied several director positions such as ING Life CEO in Luxembourg, Head of Finance Strategy Insurance at European level. Within the NN group, he was CEO of NN Hayat ve Eleklilik in Turkey before managing NN Life Japan.

Sources:

Appointments in Belgium – October 2021

November 9, 2021/in Belgium, International English /by Asquarepartners

Who are the most recently appointed directors and C-levels? October is quiet in terms of nominations.

Assuralia

Etienne Bouas-laurent

Etienne Bouas-Laurent, the recently appointed CEO of AXA Belgium, has also been appointed as Vice-President of Assuralia. The French executive takes over the VP seat of his predecessor, Jef Van In, both at Assuralia and AXA Belgium.

Following the other changes in the Executive teams of the Belgian insurance companies, there were other changes in the Board of Directors :

Martine Magnée will continue the mandate of Philippe de Longueville on behalf of P&V;
Tom De Troch will take over from Tom Meeus on behalf of Federale;
Jan Van Hove will take over the mandate of Hans Verstraete on behalf of KBC;
Jan Vande Weghe will now represent the MS Amlin Group, while the Board approved the appointment of Frank Fripon (KBC) as successor to Werner Van Steen as Chairman of the Individual Life Technical Commission and, consequently, Vice-Chairman of the Life Division.

Lloyd’s Insurance Company

Mark Cooper (Lloyd’s Insurance)

The Brussels-based Lloyd’s Insurance Company announced the appointment of executives for its UK operation.

As of November 1^st, Mark Cooper took over as Head of the Lloyd’s UK branch. In addition, he retains his current role as Head of European Branches and Chief Market Development Officer for Lloyd’s.

Degroof Petercam

Hugo Lasat (Degroof Petercam)

At the beginning of July 2021, the Board of Administrators of Degroof Petercam proposed Hugo Lasat as new CEO of the company. Previously, he was in charge of DPAM, the Asset Management entity of the group. The regulatory authorities confirmed that Hugo Lasat was ‘fit & proper’. Following this statement, the Board of Administrators confirmed his appointment as CEO. As for Bruno Colemant, he will keep working on the private bank’s activities. Peter De Coensel will take over Hugo Lasat’s position at DPAM.

Sources:

Appointments in Belgium – September 2021

September 28, 2021/in Belgium English /by Asquarepartners

Who are the most recently appointed directors and C-levels? How the Belgian insurance landscape is reshaping with new executive committees?

MS Amlin

Norbert Herkströter

MS Amlin appoints AXA's Fischer as CFO of European primary insurer - Commercial Risk

Frédéric Fischer

Norbert Herkströter is appointed as Chief Operations Officer (COO) at the European insurer MS Amlin and Jan Vande Weghe as Property and Casualty (P&C) Country Manager for Belgium, subject to regulatory approval.

Jan Vande Weghe has more than 20 years of experience in the P&C insurance market. He comes from Baloise, where he was Director of the Non-Life Corporate and Marine department. He also worked at ING Insurance and P&V/Vivium.

Additionally, MS Amlin has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer in the person of Frédéric Fischer. He succeeds Reijer Groenveld who is leaving the company. Frédéric Fischer was most recently CFO of AXA Corporate Solutions.

Monument Assurance Belgium (MAB)

Jean-Philippe Aoust (LinkedIn)

The Belgian branch of Monument Re has made it to the insurance press headlines lately. First, they acquired Allianz’s closed life book portfolio in Belgium in April of this year. The sale concerned around 90.000 policies to Monument Assurance Belgium (MAB) that are part of Allianz’s closed classical life retail insurance book together with the covering assets including mortgages.

Then, in May it was made official that MAB would acquire the entire portfolio and all the staff of Intégrale.
With the intention of expanding and strengthening its position in Belgium, MAB has appointed a CRO: Jean-Philippe Aoust. Former Chief Actuary of AXA Belgium, he had joined the group in 2012, the new CRO has joined MAB during the summer, in August.

His successor as Chief Actuary at AXA Belgium is already known: Valérie Delvaux has taken over his role. She joined the AXA group in 2006 and has since evolved regularly.

Vivium

Véronique D’Haese (LinkedIn)

The current Sales Director, Marc Simons, will retire in 2022. His successor is already known: Véronique D’Haese will take over this role as of January 1st 2022. This will be an internal evolution since Véronique D’Haese is currently Director of Mega Brokers, Partnerships and B2B.

Touring

Joost Kaesemans (FEBIAC)

As of September 1st, 2021, Joost Kaesemans is the new Director of Public Relations and Public Policy at Touring.
Joost Kaesemans has worked in the mobility industry throughout his career: he built up his expertise and network at VRT’s traffic editing department and then as spokesperson for the Belgian automobile and two-wheeler federation (FEBIAC).

Joost Kaesemans has explained: “The step towards Touring is above all a step towards the mobility user himself. I find this extremely interesting. After all, it is the mobile citizen who shapes our mobility with his changing habits and desires. It is therefore an honor to represent, together with the strong Touring team, this mobility user in the media and with stakeholders. Touring is an organization that follows the developments in mobility with great openness and interest and has the clear ambition to continue to offer all users tailored and innovative services and products that make their mobility efficient, sustainable and enjoyable.”

With the recruitment of Joost Kaesemans, “we want to strengthen and broaden our expertise and external communication, and establish our leading position in the mobility market of the future”, mentions the Touring press release.

Sources:

Appointments in Belgium – July & August 2021

August 17, 2021/in Belgium English /by Asquarepartners

Allianz Benelux – New CEO

Joos Louwerier

Mid July 2021, Joos Louwerier (47) took over as Regional CEO of Allianz Benelux. He succeeded Anthon Bradshaw who joined Allianz SE with the ambition to re-launch the development of the global P&C business. Joos Louwerier joined Allianz in 2013 as COO of Allianz Life Korea, before being appointed CEO in 2016. A year later, Joos was appointed Country Manager and President Director of Allianz Life Indonesia. A digital transformation was initiated under his leadership, resulting in substantial growth and a leading market position. Prior to his experience at Allianz, Joos worked for 12 years at ING Group in various markets in Asia and the Netherlands.

NN – New CFO

Dieter Vermeire

Dieter Vermeire, who has been CRO of the life insurer NN for more than 6 years, has been appointed CFO. He will replace Peter van Ooijen, who will take up a new challenge as CEO of NN Japan. Dieter is a qualified Actuary and Chartered Financial Analyst. He has been working within the NN Group since 2009. He started his career in 2003 withtin the Risk and Capital Management department of Fortis, when he has worked as a Financial Analyst for 3 years and a half, before taking over the position of Life insurance Risk Manager for 2 years.

AXA Partners – New CEO

Jef Van In

Jef Van In, former CEO of AXA Belgium (July 2016-June 2021), has been appointed CEO of AXA’s subsidiary AXA Partners starting the 1^st of August 2021, succeeding to Gilbert Chahine who joined the executive committee of Axa France. Jef Van In will take over this new position in addition to his current responsibilities as CEO of AXA Next and Group Chief Innovation Officer that he has been having since July 2021. Jef Van In joined the Axa Group as Managing Director of Axa Bank Europe. He then took over the leadership of Axa Insurance Eastern and Central Europe, before being promoted to CEO of AXA Belgium in July 2016.

Sources

Dieter Vermeire proposé comme nouveau CFO de l’assureur-vie NN

Nomination : changement à la tête d’Allianz Benelux

Nomination : Jef Van In élargit ses fonctions chez Axa

Appointments in Belgium – June 2021

June 24, 2021/in Belgium English /by Asquarepartners

AXA Belgium & AXA Partners

Audrey Amiot-Dupuis

Audrey Amiot will be the future Head of Operations & Transformation at AXA Belgium. She will take up her position in September 2021 and will also join the management committee of AXA Belgium. Audrey was Head of Claims P&C Retail & Motor corporate since 2019. However, she has been working within the company for more than 10 years in various roles, including transformation and P&C operations. Audrey Amiot succeeds Céline Dupont, who will join AXA Partners on the same date as Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Committee.

Insurance Europe

Sandro panizza

Andreas Brandstetter

Andreas Brandstetter, President and CEO of the Insurance UNIQA Group AG, has been re-elected to the General Assembly of Insurance Europe for a further three-year term. The European insurance and reinsurance federation also elected Sandro Panizza, Group Chief Insurance & Investment Officer of Generali Groupe, as Vice President.

Banking : too few women in management positions

The European Central Bank is aiming for 40% of women on management boards by 2025

Christine Van Rijsseghem, CRO at KBC

Only 8% of European banks have a CEO. This is too few for the ECB, who is adding the criteria of diversification to its conditions for access to management positions, the so-called “Fit&Proper”. A working group within the ECB is working on the content of these criteria and the sanctions that could result from them, such as an additional capital requirement. A few examples in Belgium: the country’s leading bank, BNP Paribas Fortis, has four women out of the twelve members of the management committee (CFO, HRD, compliance and customer services). At KBC, there is one female CRO for every 7, compared to two for every 8 at ING (Head of Wholesale and CRO) and Belfius (HR and CRO). There is gender parity in the Argenta executive. According to the NBB, Belgium is neither among the best nor the worst in terms of diversity.

Sources

AXA Belgium: Audrey Amiot devient Head of Operations & Transformation

Insurance Europe : Andreas Brandstetter réélu président

La BCE veut plus de femmes CEO de banques… ou plus de fonds propres