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Insurance Europe Resilience Week

Hosted by the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies

What is insurers’ role in building resilience to the challenges of today … and of tomorrow?

Register now for a week of free online events that will explore how the insurance industry can help economies and societies manage pandemic risks, retirement saving gaps, climate risks and more.

Future resilience - Wednesday, 2 June (12h30-13h30 CEST)

A top-level session to kick-off Resilience Week, touching on all aspects of future resilience from an insurance perspective, with a particular focus on systemic risks.


Welcome

Alexandros Sarrigeorgiou
Chairman, Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies
Chairman & CEO, Eurolife FFH Insurance Group, Greece

The European Commission view

Mairead McGuinness
European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability & Capital Markets Union

The insurance industry view

Andreas Brandstetter
President, Insurance Europe
Chairman & CEO, Uniqa Insurance Group, Austria

Q&A

Victoria Saporta
Chair, executive committee, International Association of Insurance Supervisors
Executive director, prudential policy, Bank of England & Prudential Regulation Authority, UK
Moderator: Don Forgeron
President, Global Federation of Insurance Associations
President & CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada

Speaker biographies

Alexander Sarrigeorgiou is chairman of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies and chairman and CEO of the Eurolife FFH Insurance Group. He is a member of the executive board for EMEA of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Hellenic Advisory Board of South East European Studies at the University of Oxford, UK (SEESOX). He has held senior executive positions in the insurance and asset management industries in Greece and the US.

Mairead McGuinness was appointed European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability & Capital Markets Union in late 2020, having previously been a first vice-president of the European Parliament, where she had served as an MEP for Ireland since 2004. She previously spent 24 years as a journalist, broadcaster and commentator.
Andreas Brandstetter has been president of Insurance Europe since 2018 and chairman and CEO of UNIQA Insurance Group since 2011. He joined the insurance industry in 1997 as assistant to the CEO of UNIQA’s predecessor company, becoming the member of the management board responsible for international markets and mergers & acquisitions in 2002.
Victoria Saporta was appointed chair of the executive committee of the IAIS in 2015 and is a member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. She is executive director of prudential policy at the Bank of England and the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority. Over the past 20 years at the Bank of England she has held various positions in regulatory policy, financial stability and monetary analysis.
Don Forgeron is serving a two-year term as president of GFIA and has been president and CEO of the Insurance Bureau of Canada since 2009. He has worked in the property and casualty insurance industry for over 30 years, joining the IBC in 1993. He worked for Alberta’s Department of Environment and the National Research Council in Nova Scotia early in his career.

Pension resilience - Wednesday, 2 June (14h-15h CEST)

A look at the insurance industry’s current and future role in increasing individuals’ retirement security.

Introduction

Dubravka Šuica
European Commission Vice-President for Democracy & Demography

Debate

Kyriakos Apostolides
General manager for Greece and Cyprus, MetLife

Panos Tsakloglou
Deputy minister for social insurance, Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs, Greece
Hilde Vernaillen
President, Assuralia
CEO, P&V Group, Belgium

Moderator: Olav Jones
Deputy director general, Insurance Europe

Speaker biographies

Dubravka Šuica has been EC Vice-President for Democracy and Demography since December 2019. A Croatian politician, she was the first female mayor of Dubrovnik. She entered politics in the 1990s and served as a member of the Croatian Parliament and vice-chair of the EU Integration Committee. For 10 years she was president of the Croatian delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. From 2013 to 2019 she served as an MEP, becoming first vice-chair of the EPP Group.
Kyriakos Apostolides was appointed general manager of MetLife Greece and Cyprus in 2018, having previously been head of bancassurance for EMEA at MetLife since 2012. He was the regional vice-president for bancassurance and direct marketing for MetLife-Alico Central & Eastern Europe between 2007 and 2011. He joined Alico CEE in 2005 after various positions in the insurance and mutual fund industries.

Panos Tsakloglou has been Greece’s Deputy Minister of labour in charge of social insurance since August 2020. From 2012 to 2014 he was chair of the Greek government’s Council of Economic Advisers and a member of the EU Economic and Financial Committee and Eurogroup Working Group. His previous positions include social policy advisor to two Greek Prime Ministers. He is a professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn) and senior research fellow of the Hellenic Observatory (LSE, London), focusing on the economics of social policy and labour and education economics.

Hilde Vernaillen became CEO of P&V Insurance and VIVIUM in 2011 after 20 years with the P&V Group. She is currently president of the Belgian insurance association, Assuralia, and chair of ICMIF, the global federation of cooperative and mutual insurers. She is a member of the board of Euresa, a European economic interest group for cooperation between mutual and cooperative insurers, and is president of Febecoop, which promotes the co-operative model at regional, federal, European and international level.

Olav Jones has been deputy director general of Insurance Europe since 2011. He is a member of the IFRS Advisory Council and EIOPA’s occupational pensions stakeholder group. He previously spent 15 years working for Prudential, Fortis and Ageas, latterly as group chief risk officer.

Insurance regulation’s role in resilience - Thursday, 3 June (12h30-13h30 CEST)

How do Solvency II and other regulations governing insurers affect their ability to contribute to resilience-building?

Introduction

Markus Ferber MEP (EPP, DE)

Debate

Michaela Koller
Director general, Insurance Europe
Fausto Parente
Executive director, European Insurance & Occupational Pensions Authority

Speaker biographies

Markus Ferber has been an MEP (DE, EPP) since 1994. During his time in office, he has served in multiple high-profile roles and takes a keen interest in financial services legislation. Currently, he serves as the coordinator of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

Michaela Koller has been director general of Insurance Europe since 2007. She is currently secretary general of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA) and chairs EIOPA’s insurance and reinsurance stakeholder group. She was previously a member of the management committee of the European Savings Banks Group and the World Savings Banks Institute.
Fausto Parente took up his role as executive director of EIOPA in April 2016 and is responsible for the day-to-day management of EIOPA. He has had a career in supervisory regulation and policy at national and international level, including at Italian insurance supervisor IVASS.

Digital resilience - Didier Reynders, EU Commissioner for Justice (video)

This webinar has been cancelled. Click below to watch the recorded opening remarks of Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice.


Didier Reynders has been European Commissioner for Justice since 2019. A former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium (2014¬2019), he became a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament in 1992 and held a variety of ministerial positions, including Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and of Defence.

Climate resilience - Monday, 7 June (12h30-13h30 CEST)

How can insurers contribute to reducing the gaps in protection against climate-related risks. And, as long-term investors, what is their role in supplying sustainable investments?

Introduction

Jad Ariss
Managing director, Geneva Association

Debate

Sven Giegold MEP (Greens, DE)
Christian Mumenthaler
Group CEO, Swiss Re, Switzerland

Moderator: Don Forgeron
President, Global Federation of Insurance Associations
President & CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada

Speaker biographies

Jad Ariss has been managing director of the Geneva Association since March 2019. He previously spent 24 years with the Axa Group, ending as head of public affairs and corporate responsibility. Prior to that, he had been deputy CEO of Axa France and then CEO of Axa Middle East & Africa.
Sven Giegold, MEP for North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is spokesperson for the German Greens in the European Parliament and coordinator of the Greens/EFA group in its Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. A political economist, he has been active in the environmental movement for more than 20 years.
Christian Mumenthaler started his career in 1997 with the Boston Consulting Group. He joined Swiss Re in 1999, serving in a number of positions including group chief risk officer, head of life and health, chief marketing officer reinsurance and CEO reinsurance. In 2016 he was appointed group CEO. His many external appointments include co-chair of the World Economic Forum Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, chair of Insurance Europe’s Reinsurance Advisory Board and vice-chair of the Geneva Association.
Don Forgeron is serving a two-year term as president of GFIA and has been president and CEO of the Insurance Bureau of Canada since 2009. He has worked in the property and casualty insurance industry for over 30 years, joining the IBC in 1993. He worked for Alberta’s Department of Environment and the National Research Council in Nova Scotia early in his career.

Resilience lessons from the pandemic - Tuesday, 8 June (13h-14h CEST)

What has the COVID-19 pandemic taught us about how we manage future systemic events, be they pandemics, cyber attacks or climate-action failures?

Introduction

John Berrigan
Director general, DG FISMA, European Commission

Debate

Oliver Bäte
Chairman, Allianz SE, Germany
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin MEP (Renew, FR)

Moderator: Alexandros Sarrigeorgiou
Chairman, Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies
Chairman & CEO, Eurolife FFH Insurance Group, Greece

Speaker biographies

John Berrigan has been an EC official since the mid-1980s. He has worked mainly on financial sector issues including: contributing to macro-financial analysis; working on the 1999 introduction of the euro; and producing reports on euro-denominated debt issues and post-trading in EU securities markets. In the mid-1990s, he worked for several years with the International Monetary Fund.
Oliver Bäte has been chairman of the board of Allianz SE since 2015. He began his career with management consultant McKinsey, culminating in taking charge of the firm’s European insurance and asset management sector in 2003. After joining Allianz, he became chief financial officer in 2009 and in 2013 became responsible for western and southern European insurance and global property and casualty markets. He joined the board in 2008 as global chief operating officer.
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin MEP (FR, Renew) is vice-president of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. She is particularly involved in discussions on insurance supervision and on the distribution of financial products. She is also a local representative in Normandy and previously worked as an advisor on international affairs to the former president of the French Competition Authority.
Alexander Sarrigeorgiou is chairman of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies and chairman and CEO of the Eurolife FFH Insurance Group. He is a member of the executive board for EMEA of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Hellenic Advisory Board of South East European Studies at the University of Oxford, UK (SEESOX). He has held senior executive positions in the insurance and asset management industries in Greece and the US.

Sponsored by

Due to the global pandemic, Insurance Europe’s Resilience Week of online events replaces its annual International Conference this year. Insurance Europe’s International Conference will be back next year — join us in Prague on 2 June 2022!
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