Focus on 2022

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.

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.

Alberta Brusi is the Citi Country Officer for Citibank Europe plc, Luxembourg Branch since June 2015.

She joined Citi Italy in December 1996, in the Finance team. She was responsible for the Capital Markets business and US reporting. She transferred to Citi London in 2003 and took responsibility for ICG Finance oversight of Western Europe, comprising eighteen countries with direct responsibility as Controller for the Benelux franchises. In 2005 she returned to Milan to become Chief of Staff to the Citi Country Officer for Italy. In 2012, she expanded her responsibilities and was appointed CAO and Operations and Technology Head for the country.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors in Classical Literature, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and a Bachelor of Commerce after degree with Distinction, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Joanna Cound, Managing Director, is co-head of BlackRock’s Global Public Policy Group (GPPG), which engages with policy makers and regulators at the global, regional, and national levels to help address financial services policy challenges and to bring the voice of the end investor to the table. The team delivers data driven thought leadership to policy makers, clients, and industry peers, across the spectrum of financial policy issues impacting savers and investors. She is a member of BlackRock’s European Executive Committee, the BlackRock Group Limited (BGL) Enterprise Risk Management Committee, BlackRock’s Global Operating Committee, and BlackRock’s Global Public Policy Steering Committee and Global External Affairs Operating Committee. She is also a board member of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), and the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).

Prior to moving to this role, Joanna Cound was International COO for BlackRock’s Cash Management Group. Ms. Cound’s service with the firm dates to 1996, including her years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), which merged with BlackRock in 2006. Prior to joining MLIM in 1996, Ms. Cound worked for Fidelity as head of European product development and as a marketing manager for Citibank retail bank in Germany.

Joanna Cound earned a BA degree in European studies from Loughborough University and a masters in European studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She also has an MBA from the London Business School.

Yves Mersch is a former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB). His eight-year term started on 15 December 2012.

He was the first Governor of the Banque centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) from 1 June 1998 to 14 December 2012. During his tenure as Governor of the BCL, in 2011. He has been a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the ECB since their creation in 1998. He is the longest-serving member of the Governing Council.

After obtaining post-graduate degrees, first in international public law and then in political science, he had a teaching assignment at the Université Paris-Sud. During this time he was admitted to the Bar of Luxembourg. Mr Mersch started his career at the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance in 1975. He was seconded to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington in 1976 and joined the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York in 1980. Upon his return to Luxembourg in 1981, he worked at the Ministry of Finance. From 1985 to 1989 he was Government Commissioner in charge of oversight of the Luxembourg stock market.

Between 1983 and 1999 he was a member of the Council of the Luxembourg Monetary Institute, Luxembourg’s banking supervisory authority. As Personal Representative of the Minister of Finance, Mr Mersch contributed to the design of the Maastricht Treaty. He represented his country in the governance of international organisations like IMF, World Bank group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), etc as well as in private sector companies in the areas of banking, insurance, telecommunications, satellites…

In 2011 he became elected Co-Chair of the Financial Stability Board’s Regional Consultative Group for Europe.

Mr Mersch was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of Luxembourg. As of 2015, he assumed membership of the Central Bank Governance Group, established at the Bank for International Settlements. Mr Mersch is a member of the Institut Grand-Ducal in Luxembourg. He is also Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (Ordre National de la Légion d’honneur, France).

In 2019 Yves Mersch received the Lámfalussy Award from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Hungary).

Yves Nosbusch is a Member of the Executive Committee of BGL BNP Paribas, in charge of Communications, CSR and Strategy as well as Chief Economist.

Before joining BGL BNP Paribas in 2012, he was on the full-time faculty of the Finance Department at the London School of Economics. His academic research, published in leading journals such as the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Monetary Economics, has concentrated on public debt (sovereign risk, optimal maturity structure) and pension systems.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics.