08 July 2021
Digital event hosted by LFF
Registrations closed
programmeFocus on Governance
Date & Time
-
Thursday, 08 July 2021
from 10:30 to 12:00
Location
- Digital event hosted by LFF
Luxembourg for Finance invites you to join our livestream session:
FOCUS ON GOVERNANCE
Thursday, 8 July 2021
10:30 – 12:00 CEST
To watch the replay, click on the banner:
Governance has long been a priority in Luxembourg and boards play a critical role providing oversight and strategic functions. Given the transformative era in which we find ourselves, with growing regulatory oversight, the shift toward sustainability, and an increasingly complex operating environment – a robust governance framework is crucial.
Karen O’Sullivan, Head of Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance at the CSSF, will provide the opening remarks and delve into the regulator’s perspective. Our first panel, with experts from ILA, IMS Luxembourg, TDO and an independent director, will discuss the role of boards in setting the right strategy for a sustainable business. This is followed by a second panel on the increasingly complex operating environment firms find themselves in and how boards are better able to exercise control. For this panel we will be joined by an expert independent director as well as speakers from invesTRe and Seqvoia.
For more information on the complete programme, as well as speaker details, please see below.
For questions pertaining to the event, please contact the events team: Caroline Hoeltgen, Tatjana Schaefer, Aurélie Zambeaux
Programme
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10:30
Welcome
Philipp von Restorff, Deputy CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
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10:35
The Regulator's View
Interviewer: Philipp von Restorff, Deputy CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
Karen O'Sullivan, Head of Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance, CSSF
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10:50
Setting the right strategy for a sustainable business
Moderator: Carine Feipel, Independent Director and Chair of the Board of Directors, ILA
David Arendt, Partner, The Directors' Office
Sophie Öberg, Deputy Director, IMS Luxembourg
Raymond Schadeck, Chairman of L'Université dans la Nature - Montreal and Luxembourg
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11:30
Exercising control in today’s complex world
Moderator: Georges Bock, Founder and CEO, invesTRe
Fernand Grulms, Independent Director
Susanne Schartz, COO, Seqvoia
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12:00
End of livestream
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Speakers
David Arendt
Partner, The Directors' Office
Contact:
David Arendt is a Partner of The Directors’ Office, the leading practice of independent Directors in Luxembourg, which he joined in May 2017.
David is certified by L’Institut Luxembourgeois des Administrateurs (ILA) and INSEAD as a Director. David, whose career spans nearly 40 years, has worked in Europe and the US in law, finance and business.
Most recently he was Managing Director of Le Freeport Luxembourg (rebranded Luxembourg high security hub), a high tech/highly secure facility for storing and handling valuable goods and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cargolux, the all-cargo carrier based in Luxembourg. David is a lawyer by education and practiced law close to 10 years in Luxembourg, New York and Paris.
He has extensive experience in the fields of law, IT, corporate control, corporate finance, project management, budgeting, long term planning and administration.
David’s career started in Law with the leading Luxembourg law firm Arendt & Medernach and he was a member of the Luxembourg and New York bars. David is a well-known figure in Luxembourg and internationally in the business (primarily aviation and logistics), art and financial industries. He sits on the board of directors and board committees of Luxembourg based banks, insurance and insurance brokerage companies, commercial/operating companies, GP’s of private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate funds as well as of the Luxembourg Export Credit Agency. Recently, David joined the Federal Board of Humanity & Inclusion, also known as Handicap International, a leading NGO.
In parallel to his activity of independent director, David acts as consultant and project manager on real estate, logistics, industrial and academic projects. He is the principal and Managing Director of Arendt Capital Sàrl, a company he created in January 2017.
Georges Bock
Founder & CEO, Investre
Contact:
Georges Bock is the Founder & CEO of Investre, the Luxembourg-based technology company behind the easy-to-use DIY investing platform, Moniflo.
Moniflo gives a new generation of retail investors the investment account and tools they need to invest in funds that match their ethics. With the Moniflo app, the critical and conscious can take investment decisions into their own hands.
Georges is Partner at Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital, a Luxembourg-based investment company specialised in fintechs. He is also a Non-Executive Board Director for Investify Tech, Governance.com and Exceet.
Before immersing himself in the fintech and start-up scene, he served as Managing Partner at KPMG Luxembourg from 2012 to 2016. In all, he spent 27 years with KPMG, specializing in asset management, banking, taxation, and capital markets.
He has served as board member for ALFI, ILA, and Fedil. He has also contributed to European professional associations, including EFAMA and the EU Commission Expert Groups.
Carine Feipel
Independent Director, Chair of the Luxembourg Directors Institute (ILA)
Contact:
Carine Feipel is a Luxembourg attorney and independent director, certified by INSEAD (IDP-C) and ILA. She is a member of the Board of Directors of a bank, several insurance companies, investment funds and management companies. Since June 2019, she is the Chair of ILA, the Luxembourg Directors’ Institute.
She has practiced as a lawyer since 1994, specializing in insurance law. She was a partner with a major Luxembourg law firm in both Luxembourg and New York before becoming independent in 2014. Nowadays, she focuses on independent directorships as well as corporate governance topics.
Fernand Grulms
Independent Director
Contact:
Fernand’s professional career can be summarized in 4 mains steps.
After starting his professional life in 2 different banks, he joined the Luxembourg Bankers Association ABBL to become later their Chief-Economist and Deputy CEO. Fernand was involved in many legal and regulatory files in the field of banking, capital markets and investment funds.
After 13 years with the ABBL, Fernand left to set up and head PECOMA Actuarial and Risk, a company offering actuarial and risk management advice to corporates and insurance companies.
As from 2007 Fernand was appointed CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, a company he has helped to set up and which he has lead as CEO until 2013.
Since 2013, Fernand is acting as a professional director on the board of finance companies like banks, insurance companies, Fund Management companies as well as investment funds (UCITS and Alternatives).
Fernand was a lecturer in mathematics of finance at the University of Luxembourg from 1988 until 2004.
He is a graduate in finance and quantitative economics from the University of Liège. He is also a certified director INSEAD and ILA.
Karen O'Sullivan
Head of Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance, CSSF
Contact:
Karen O’Sullivan is Head of the Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance at the CSSF.
She coordinates the activities of this department which is responsible for financial innovation, both the application process and on-going prudential supervision of payment institutions and electronic money institutions, market infrastructures and the oversight of remuneration and governance practices and policies implemented within financial institutions.
Being the department in charge of financial innovation means that Karen and her team are the privileged contact and point of entry to the CSSF for the FinTech industry.
She represents the CSSF on an international level through participation in various working sub-groups and as speaker at several conferences, covering payment services, remuneration policies and corporate governance matters at both national and international level
Karen is both an Irish and Luxembourgish qualified chartered accountant. Prior to joining the CSSF in September 2012, Karen was an audit director at PwC Luxembourg specializing in the audit of investment funds.
Sophie Öberg
Deputy Director, IMS Luxembourg
Contact:
Sophie Öberg is a sustainability and communications professional with over 25 years´ experience in Luxembourg, Stockholm and Paris.
She has been working with strategy development and activation, change management, project leading and management, design thinking and facilitation in international environments, both as a manager and as a consultant within large corporations, smaller businesses, own ventures, profit and non-profit, such as RTL Group, Ceratizit, McKinsey & Company and Sandvik.
Besides her current position as Deputy Director at IMS Inspiring More Sustainability, Luxembourg’s leading network for Corporate Responsibility, where she more specifically focuses on Planet and Prosperity pillars-related projects, Sophie is Co-Chair of the Sustainability Strategy for Boards working committee at ILA (Institut Luxembourgeois des Administrateurs), and a member of the International Advisory Board of VitalBriefing, a Luxembourg-based global digital media company.
She holds a BA in Communications and Media Sciences from Sciences Po Paris and a Master of Arts in History from Sorbonne University, Paris, France.
Raymond Schadeck
Chairman of L'Université dans la Nature - Montreal and Luxembourg
Contact:
With degrees both in economics and law, Raymond spent 29 years of his career, as an auditor and consultant, with a ‘Big 4 Firm’.
Since 2010 Raymond is using his competencies, experience and energy, for about 50% to serve as an independent director in Boards of local but also international corporations in different sectors, dedicating the other 50% on social and societal projects, initiatives and associations with a clear focus on education in all of its forms in Luxembourg and abroad.
Raymond has the strong belief that the present crisis offers a unique opportunity to accelerate the transition to a real triple bottom line strategy at all levels. He is, as such, devoting all of his energy to assist the corporations (triple bottom line: Planet, People, Prosperity) and all the non-for-profit associations and projects (triple bottom line: Planet, People and Impact) he is committed to, to grab the huge opportunities embedded in the shift of values the world is presently experiencing.
Raymond is happily married since more than 30 years and a happy father of two; ‘happiness as parents meaning that you realize that your kids have turned out to be genuinely good people’.
Please see: http://unature.org
Susanne Schartz
COO, Seqvoia
Contact:
Susanne Schartz is the COO of SEQVOIA, a Luxembourg FinTech innovating data management across the financial industry, where she leads the IT & Development, Customer Experience, and Legal & Compliance functions.
SEQVOIA is an innovative company with a mission at the heart of the digital revolution: we strive to build technology that transforms the way our clients create and use data as an asset. Leveraging a strong track record in supporting the business processes of the market’s major firms, we aim at accelerating their transformation towards data-driven organizations. SEQVOIA specializes in digitalizing manual processes to successfully manage product lifecycle and integrate quality data into your product value chain. With built-in compliance checks and full audit trail guaranteeing clear ownership, asset managers achieve better data governance, higher operational streamlining, greater cost efficiency and lower compliance risk.
Susanne has more than 20 years of experience in the Luxembourg asset management industry. During this time, she held different roles within operations and product. Throughout her career, she gathered extensive experience in defining and deploying technology within operational and regulatory contexts. Susanne is passionate about data and technology as the basis for reliable automation of business processes.
A German native, Susanne lives in Luxembourg and speaks German, English, French and some Luxembourgish. She lived in Canada, the UK and the US for her education and enjoys the inherently Global nature of life in Luxembourg.
Philipp von Restorff
Deputy CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
Contact:
Philipp von Restorff currently is Deputy CEO at Luxembourg for Finance (LFF), the agency for the development of the Luxembourg financial centre.
Prior to his appointment at LFF, he was serving as Head of Communication of The Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL), where he also held the position of Secretary of the Board of Directors. Philipp has been Chairman of the European Banking Federation’s Communication and CSR Steering Committee from 2014-2018. Before joining the ABBL he worked for the Luxembourg Information and Press Services of the Luxembourg Ministry of State.
He is elected member of the Board of Directors of LuxFLAG, the Luxembourg Finance Labelling Agency, as well as of the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative. Philipp is lecturer at the Luxembourg House of Training and financial education volunteer at “Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg”, a branch of the Junior Achievement Network (JA).