Building bridges with the USA

Ambassador Thomas M. Barrett was nominated by President Biden on August 25, 2021, to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 16, sworn in by Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee on December 23, and arrived in Luxembourg on January 28, 2022.

He previously served as the Mayor of Milwaukee from 2004-2021, making him the longest-serving mayor of one of the 50 largest cities in the United States.

From 1993 to 2003, Ambassador Barrett was elected to serve five consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. While in Congress, he was a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, as well as the Banking and Financial Services, Government Reform and Oversight, and Judiciary Committees. From 1989 to 1993, he was an elected member of the Wisconsin Senate, and of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1984 to 1989.

Before being elected to serve, Ambassador Barrett worked in a private law practice and as a bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He started his career in 1980 as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Robert W. Warren on the United States Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Ambassador Barrett earned his B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a J.D. with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison. He and his wife, Kris, have four children: Tom, Annie, Erin, and Kate.

Jennifer de Nijs is Special Adviser for Sustainable Finance at the Ministry of Finance in Luxembourg. She has been with the Finance Ministry since 2015 and is currently the lead on climate, green and sustainable finance.

Jennifer is the focal point for climate finance initiatives in which the Finance Ministry participates and is the President of the newly created Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative, as well as a member of a number of Boards and Committees, including the Luxembourg EIB Climate Finance Platform Contributors Committee and the Forestry and Climate Change Investment Committee. At international level Jennifer represents Luxembourg at the Green Climate Fund and is the Finance Minister’s Sherpa of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate.

Between 2015 and 2016, Jennifer worked as an Attaché of EU Budget Affairs and Anti Fraud, wherein she represented Luxembourg to the EU. In this capacity, she was the Vice Chair of the EU Budget Committee, the Working Group on Combating fraud and the Own Resources Working Party during Luxembourg`s EU presidency.

Previous to her government position, Jennifer de Nijs worked in civil society organisations such as Caritas Luxembourg and in the private sector at Clearstream and American Express.

Nicolas Mackel is CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre, since July 2013.

Nicolas is a career diplomat. He has graduated with a law degree from the University of Aix-en-Provence, and holds two post-graduate diplomas in European law from the Sorbonne University, respectively the College of Europe in Bruges where he then also served as a teaching assistant in the Law Department. He worked as a legal clerk at the European Court of Justice before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999. His assignments focused on the successive EU Treaty negotiations (Amsterdam, Nice, Constitution, Lisbon).

Nicolas was consecutively posted at Luxembourg’s Permanent Representation to the EU (2002-07), as Deputy Chief of Mission at Luxembourg’s Embassy in Washington DC (2007-11) and as Consul General in Shanghai (2011-13) where he was in charge of promoting Luxembourg’s economic interests throughout China as the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office.

Herbert Muck has joined Citi as Head of EMEA Asset Manager Sales.

He has over 15 years of experience in financial services, especially in leading the on shore and off shore commercial development of the European asset managers segment. He is active in various working groups within several financial and funds association promoting the Luxembourg financial place.

He worked previously at Société Générale Securities Services as Head of Sales and Relationship Management, member of SGSS Luxembourg executive committee, and for Deutsche Börse in the Market Data & Services division, as Head of Sales.

Solenne Niedercorn-Desouches is French and Luxembourgish. She graduated from the Universities of Paris Dauphine and La Sorbonne in Management, Finance and Tax.

In 2003, Solenne joined the the Swiss banking institution: UBS as Advisory Portfolio Manager .During these 6 years spent within the UBS group, the latter also held the positions of Investment Consultant, Project Manager and Business Analyst.

Solenne subsequently joined another Swiss Banking Group: Lombard Odier to participate in the opening of the Luxembourg entity and launched the Independent asset manager desk activities of Lombard Odier in Europe.During these 5 years spent at Lombard Odier, Solenne was involved in numerous regulatory projects, linked to the expansion of the Banking activities of Lombard Odier in Europe.

In 2015, Solenne launched her first venture. Subsequently, she joined a startup incubator, where she created and deployed a simple and effective classifieds platform for selling second-hand and discounted items in Luxembourg.

Currently, Solenne is independent and holds non executive director positions in regulated entities and performs consulting assignments for startups or scaleups. She is also Conducting Officer of Fabric Ventures (Registered AIFM investing in the open economy).

She is the host of Finscale: a French podcast presenting innovations in the finance industry (Banking, FinTech, Insurance, InsurTech, Investment).

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.

Joanna is a counsel in the Funds & Asset Management practice of Allen & Overy’s Luxembourg office. Based in Paris, and part of the team leading A&O’s dedicated France-Luxembourg platform, Joanna assists clients on the structuring of Luxembourg regulated and unregulated investment funds investing across a variety of asset classes, alternative assets in particular and advising asset managers, institutional investors and investment advisors across the full spectrum of investment fund matters including international fund raising, internal governance, compliance and organization, carried interest and co-investment arrangements and restructurings.

She has significant experience advising on general fund regulatory matters, fund finance and also extensively advises institutional investors on their investments/commitments in private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, and infrastructure funds established in Luxembourg and in France, as well as on co-investments in such funds. In addition,

Joanna is adept in fund secondary transactions. Joanna in a member of the New York, Paris and Luxembourg bars and has practiced in New York, Paris and Luxembourg.

Michael Pedroni is the Investment Company Institute’s Chief Global Affairs Officer and leads ICI Global. Michael is responsible for ICI’s international regulatory and policy work to support regulated investment funds and their investors around the world.

Michael has extensive public and private sector experience in international engagement and financial policy, having served at the U.S. Treasury, White House, Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund. Most recently, he was executive vice president and managing director for global markets and research at the Managed Funds Association, where he led international activities and raised the association’s profile in Europe, while also directing the development of global research. Prior to that, as a member of the Treasury Department’s Senior Executive Service, he served under four U.S. Treasury Secretaries, beginning in 2008 as the first Director of the re-established Markets Room as the financial crisis was unfolding. Michael was subsequently appointed as the U.S. financial attaché to the European Union and head of Treasury’s office in Europe for three years beginning in 2013. In 2016, he began a White House detail, acting as senior director for global economics and finance under the Obama Administration, and rejoined Treasury in late 2016 as senior executive director for international economic analysis. Pedroni started his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and later worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and at ICAP, an inter-dealer-broker.

Michael is a graduate of Yale University and received a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. In addition, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and is conversational in German, Italian, and basic French. Michael also is an adjunct professor in the department of economics at George Washington University, where he teaches a course on managing international economic crises.

Abbas Suleiman is the Senior Director of Structured Finance at Invesco Real Estate. Abbas is responsible for leading the Structured Finance tax team in Europe and has structuring experience covering separate accounts and pooled funds within Invesco Real Estate.

Abbas began his investment career in 2002 and joined Invesco Real Estate in January 2013. Prior to joining Invesco, Abbas was a fund controller at AEW Europe for four years and has also worked in fund reporting and fund accounting roles at CBRE Investors, Close Brothers and MFI. Abbas has 18 years’ accounting experience.

Abbas is a qualified chartered accountant and is based in the London office.

Denise Voss  is a Non-Executive Director of financial services companies and serves as a Director on the Boards of flagship funds of major fund promoters.

Ms Voss has worked in the financial industry in Luxembourg since 1990, and retired from Franklin Templeton in March 2020 after 25 years, where she was a Conducting Officer and member of the board of Franklin Templeton International Services S.à r.l., a Luxembourg-based management company. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, she worked for 10 years at Coopers & Lybrand in Boston, USA and Luxembourg. She holds a Massachusetts C.P.A. license and obtained a bachelors degree from Tufts University, as well as a masters degree in accountancy from Bentley University.

Ms Voss is currently Chairwoman of LuxFLAG, an independent agency created in Luxembourg in 2006 to support the financing of sustainable development, by providing clarity for investors through awarding internationally recognised Labels to eligible investment vehicles. LuxFLAG also supports a strong network of Associate Members and key partners and regularly shares information on new developments in sustainable finance. She is also Chairwoman of the EFAMA Investor Education Platform, and was Chairwoman of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) from 2015-2019, a member of the ALFI board of directors from 2007-2019 and is currently a member of the ALFI Strategic Board.

Robert is a Partner and Market Leader at EY Luxembourg with almost 20 years’ experience in providing assurance and advisory services in the international real estate and wealth & asset management business globally.

He is a member of the ALFI Board and Co-Chair of the ALFI REIF Committee, member of the INREV Public Affairs Committee. Robert is a regular speaker and guest lecturer at various industry events and universities and has authored many articles in notable publications.

Robert is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and a member of the Institut des réviseurs d’entreprises.   Robert attended the National University of Ireland, Galway where he graduated with an honors degree in Commerce.  He is now a member of the Board of the University’s Commerce Program.