Insurance Europe

Arno Ahosniemi
CEO, Finance Finland

Arno Ahosniemi has been the CEO of Finance Finland since February 2023. From 2012 to 2023, he was the editor-in-chief of the Finnish trade newspaper Kauppalehti, and director responsible for editorial work at Alma Talent. From 2014 to 2019, Mr Ahosniemi was chairman of the board of the Association of Editors-in-Chief.

He has a master’s degree in social sciences and business administration

Shigeru Ariizumi

Chair, Executive Committee, International Association of Insurance Supervisors

Shigeru Ariizumi is vice minister for international affairs of the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). He is a member of the FSB Plenary, serves as chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and is vice chair of the board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Before assuming his position in July 2023, he held key positions at the Japanese Ministry of Finance (JMOF) and the JFSA. At the JMOF, he worked as G7/G20 deputies deputy in the Finance Track and also supervised Japan’s relationship with the IMF and the World Bank. At the JFSA, he led the team under Japan’s G20 Presidency in 2019.

Mirka Vahtera

Strategic Accounts, EMEA Lead, ICEYE, Finland

Mirka Vahtera is the strategic accounts lead at ICEYE, responsible for sales and value creation initiatives for ICEYE's insurance clients across the EMEA region. Her role involves orchestrating the transformative impact of ICEYE's natural and catastrophe monitoring products within the insurance ecosystem: direct, re-, and parametric insurers.

Leveraging her extensive background in the Scandinavian private insurance market and commercial specialty lines broking, she brings a wealth of industry expertise to her current position on how to leverage earth observation data within insurance.

Hans De Cuyper

CEO, Ageas Group

Hans De Cuyper is CEO of AGEAS group, having initially joined the group in 2004 as director, Insurance Management Asia in Hong Kong. In 2007, he moved to Malaysia as chief financial officer of Etiqa Insurance & Takaful, the joint venture between Maybank and Ageas. From 2011 until 2013, he was a member of the Executive Committee of Maybank, the leading Malaysian bank, and chief executive officer for Etiqa.

From September 2013 until September 2015, De Cuyper was chief financial officer of AG Insurance, Ageas’s Belgian subsidiary. In October 2015, De Cuyper became chief executive officer of AG Insurance and five years later he was appointed CEO of Ageas and a non-independent executive member of the board of directors.

Ekhosuehi Iyahen

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, the United Nations, and other organisations. IDF aims to enhance the use of insurance to build greater resilience against disasters. Ms Iyahen has been involved in establishing a number of pioneering initiatives including a tripartite agreement between the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to increase insurance protection in climate-exposed countries.

Iyahen is a London School of Economics and Political Science and Harvard University graduate. She was a 2018 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre resident practitioner fellow. In 2020, she was identified by Leader’s magazine as one of 100 global resilience thought leaders. In 2021, she was appointed as a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. She is also a member of the Climate Impacts Advisory Committee of the Welcome Trust.

Lori Wing-Heier

Director of the Alaska Division of Insurance
and Co-Chair of the Climate and Resilience Task Force, NAIC

Lori Wing-Heier was appointed director of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) division of insurance in February 2014. She has over 45 years of experience in the insurance and risk management industry, including experience working as a broker and corporate risk manager.

She serves on two of NAIC’s committees including the Financial Regulation and Accreditation Committee, where she is the chair, and the International Insurance Relations Committee. In addition, she is co-chair of the Climate and Resiliency Task Force.

Ms Wing-Heier attended North Central Michigan College and holds the certified insurance counselor (CIC) and certified risk manager (CRM) designations.

Petra Hielkema

Chairperson, EIOPA

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.

Juha Koponen

CEO of LocalTapiola

Juha Koponen is the president and CEO of LocalTapiola Group (LähiTapiola) and serves as the chairman of the board at LocalTapiola General, LocalTapiola Life, and Finance Finland. Mr Koponen is also a member of the board at the Confederation of Finnish Industries, Elo Pension Insurance Company, and Eurapco, and a member of the Commission at the Finland Chamber of Commerce. LocalTapiola strives to be the most impactful partner in risk prevention in a world of evolving risks.

Susan K. Neely

President, Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA);
President & CEO, American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI)

Susan K. Neely is president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), whose member companies represent 93 percent of US industry assets and provide financial protection to families. Ms Neely is also president of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA). Under her presidency, GFIA has released influential reports on global protection gaps and the unique role of the insurance industry in the financial services sector. She serves on the B20 Finance & Infrastructure Task Force.

A native of Iowa, Neely holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree from Drake University.

Timo Ritakallio

CEO, OP Financial Group

Timo Ritakallio Doctor of Science (DSc Tech), LLM, and MBA, has worked as president and chief executive officer at OP Financial Group from 2018. OP Financial Group is owned by its customers and is Finland’s largest financial services group. The balance sheet in December 2023 was EUR 160.4 billion and the operating profit was EUR 2 050 million.

Since 2018 he has also worked as chairman of the board of Directors of Pohjola Insurance Ltd, a subsidiary of OP Financial Group. Pohjola Insurance is Finland’s leading non-life insurer.

Before joining OP Financial Group, he worked at Ilmarinen mutual pension insurance company as president and chief executive officer since 2015 and as deputy chief executive officer and chief investment officer between 2008-2015.

Dr Stefan Gehring

Chief legal and compliance officer, Munich Re, Germany

Dr Stefan Gehring has been group general counsel and compliance officer at Munich Re since January 2021.

He began his career working on national and international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and competition law matters. Between 2003 and 2013, he worked as in-house counsel and general counsel for Bayer’s MaterialScience sub-group (now Covestro). Between 2013 and 2015, he served as general counsel to Bayer HealthCare and then from 2016 until 2020 in the pharmaceuticals division, where he was also a member of the division’s Executive Committee.

He studied law in Tübingen, Freiburg and Düsseldorf.

Christina Lindenius

Managing director, Insurance Sweden

Christina Lindenius is CEO of Insurance Sweden. She is chair of several companies in Sweden providing common infrastructure for the insurance industry, and also chair of the board of the Third AP Fund and the National Government Service Centre.

Prior to this Ms Lindenius worked for some 20 years in the public sector, including as director in the Swedish Central Bank and as director general in the Ministry of Finance. Following this she was director general of the Premium Pension Authority.

Lindenius holds a bachelor’s from the University of Uppsala and participated in the masters of international economics programme at Johns Hopkins School in Washington D.C.

Teija Korpiaho

Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority, member of the board of EIOPA; Chief advisor, life and non-life insurance at Financial Supervisory Authority, FIN-FSA Finland

Teija Korpiaho is the chief advisor at the Financial Supervisory Authority, Finland. She has worked in insurance and pension supervision for over 20 years in different positions.

For the past ten years Ms Korpiaho has been on the board of supervisors in EIOPA. She is also a member of EIOPA’s management board and Policy Steering Committee. Currently, Korpiaho is a chief advisor to the head of department in matters related to insurance and pension supervision. She was previously head of division for life and non-life undertakings, analyst and a prudential supervisor.

Korpiaho has a master’s degree in economic sciences.

Paulina Dejmek Hack

Director for general affairs, DG FISMA, European Commission

Paulina Dejmek Hack is director for general Affairs at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

Paulina has worked on financial services matters in the European Commission in different positions since she joined in 2004. From 2010 to 2014 she worked in the private office of the then EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, subsequently vice-president of the European Commission, and from 2014 to 2019 as financial adviser for the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

In 2019 to 2020, Paulina was director of the European Commission’s Task Force for relations with the United Kingdom, involved in the EU-UK negotiations.

Michaela Koller

Director general, Insurance Europe,
Secretary general, Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA)

Michaela Koller is director general of Insurance Europe, the European insurance and reinsurance federation. She is currently also secretary general of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA). She has worked in Brussels for the last 32 years.

Prior to joining Insurance Europe in February 2007, she held management positions in different banking trade bodies. Ms Koller has served as a member of various consumer/industry groups and advisory groups established by the European Commission. She has also been a member of both stakeholder groups of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA): the Insurance and Reinsurance Stakeholder Group (IRSG) and the Occupational Pension Stakeholder Group (OPSG). She is currently vice chair of EIOPA’s IRSG. Michaela testifies regularly at hearings organised by EU institutions.

She holds a law degree from Augsburg University.

Olav Jones

Deputy director general/Director, economics & finance, 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.

Olav 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.

William Vidonja

Head of conduct of business, Insurance Europe

William Vidonja is head of conduct of business at Insurance Europe, where he contributes to the global and European debates on legal and consumer protection issues, including insurance distribution, data protection, differentiation, contract law, competition issues and financial education.

He is also part of the employers’ delegation of the Insurance Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (ISSDC), the only forum at European level in which insurance employer and employee representatives discuss topics of common interest with the support of the European Commission.

Mr Vidonja joined Insurance Europe as a trainee in 2002. After his traineeship he was hired as deputy manager of the insurance of the person department before moving to the conduct of business department.

Nicolas Jeanmart

Head of personal & general insurance, Insurance Europe

Nicolas Jeanmart, as head of Insurance Europe’s personal and general insurance department, contributes to the global and European debates affecting the non-life and life insurance sectors. He is also involved in the discussions on financial stability, with a particular focus on the question of systemic risk in insurance. Prior to joining Insurance Europe in November 2010, Nicolas worked for the European Savings Banks Group (ESBG), where he held various positions, culminating in four years as head of the banking supervision and economic affairs department.

This position entailed notably the responsibility for representing the interests of Europe’s savings and retail banks in the discussions on global bank capital requirements frameworks (Basel II and Basel III). During his time at the ESBG, he also acted as the secretariat for various working groups and committees of the European Banking Industry Committee, the platform representing the entire European banking industry. In his earlier career he provided consultancy and training services, primarily to the financial sector, in Belgium and Luxembourg. Nicolas is a Belgian/French national. He holds a master’s degree in business engineering, as well as degrees in European integration and development and in computer sciences.

Fatim Diarra

Member of the parliament (Greens) in Finland

Fatim Diarra is a 36 year old member of the Finnish parliament, a former chairperson of the Helsinki City Council and a city councillor. Ms She is an activist and the chairperson of Finland's oldest organisation defending women's rights, the Feminist Association Union.

Patrick Itäniemi

Young Finnish Economic Guru 2024

Patrick Itäniemi is a Finnish 18-year-old secondary school graduate who won Finland’s annual Economic Guru competition. The Economic Guru competition tests Finnish general upper secondary school students’ economics skills and has been organised by Finance Finland since 1997. The competition was hosted at 126 general upper secondary schools.

Hanna Aho

Climate Policy Officer, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation

Hanna Aho, Master of Science (MSc), is a biologist and works as a climate policy officer at the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. She focuses on climate and energy policies in Finland and the EU, especially on the land use sector and carbon sinks. Aho has worked with environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in Finland and Brussels since 2015. She has campaigned amongst others for the Paris Climate Agreement, EU land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) Regulation, the 2019 climate elections, and been part of the first climate litigation in Finland.