Building bridges with the UK

Florent Albert joined Lombard International in 2015. He is currently Managing Director Europe with Lombard International Assurance and Group Chief Financial Officer, and has over 20 years of experience in Financial Services. He is also a Member of the Board of the Association of Luxembourg Insurers, of which he was Vice-Chairman of the International Life Commission from 2016 to 2020.

Mr. Albert started his career in M&A at Continentale d’enterprises (Artemis Group). he then joined the GE Group where he held various leadership roles in the US and Europe, including CFO and Managing Director positions in the Group’s Financial Services division. After GE, Florent Albert joined RSA Insurance in London as Group FP&A Manager and then MetLife France, based in Paris, as CFO and ERM Director.

Mr. Albert holds a MSc in Economics and Corporate Finance from the University of Bordeaux, a MPhil in Industrial Organization and Labour Economics, and a MSc in Strategic Management from HEC Paris. Mr. Albert is also a Financial Management Programme Graduate from GE Capital in the US and a certified Lean Six Sigma expert.

Thibault de Barsy is the Vice-Chairman and General Manager of The Payments Association EU.

Thibault has launched the Payments Association EU (PA EU)  in February 2020. The Payments Association EU is a business club of decision makers in the payments industry. Its members are the enterprises forming all the components of the payments value chain in the 27 countries of the European Union.  PA EU builds on the international network of its London-based sister organisation, the Payments Association (PA).

Thibault was formerly CEO of Keytrade Bank Luxembourg for 5 years and has over 20 years of experience in the financial and ICT sector. Thibault is also a guest lecturer at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. Since October 2019, he has participated as a recurrent guest speaker on the Belgian news TV channel LN24 as an Economics columnist.

Before settling in Luxembourg, he held different marketing & sales positions across banks, insurance, telco and credit card companies.

Thibault holds a Master of Science in Management from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and a CEFA certificate from the Belgian Association of Financial Analysts.

Marc Hengen has been the Managing Director of ACA since March 2013. After 18 years of experience in the Luxembourgish insurance sector, he joined the Executive Committee of ACA in 2010. He is also a member of both the Executive Committee of UEL (Union des Entreprises Luxembourgeoises) and the Executive Committee of IE (Insurance Europe), as well as Secretary General of AGERE (Association des gestionnaires d’entreprises de réassurances).

Marc Hengen has a Master’s Degree in Law from the Robert Schuman University of Strasbourg.

Marion is a highly accomplished business leader with extensive experience across the financial service industry, with an exemplary track record of driving growth through innovation, change and superlative people leadership.

Director of Payments NatWest since 2015, she is responsible for setting the Payments strategy which includes payment architecture, operations, industry relations and innovation.  Previously President of MasterCard UK & Ireland (2012-2015), Marion was responsible for growing the business and developing a world beyond cash through an innovative approach to everyday Payments, including  technologies such as contactless and mobile. Prior to joining MasterCard, Marion was CEO of VocaLink (2000-2012), where during her tenure the Faster Payments Service was launched, Voca and Link were merged and Marion initiated international expansion with VocaLink selected as the outsourced provider of Sweden’s payments.

Marion is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Payments Association, an advisory board member of the US association P20 and recently chaired the UK Finance Payments Futures working group.

Marion is on the Payments Advisory Board, member of the charitable business Pennies (pennies.org.uk) and proud to be a trustee of The Multiple Sclerosis Society (mssociety.org.uk).

She is a Freeman of the City of London.

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.

Kerstin Mathias is Regulatory Affairs and Policy Director at the City of London Corporation where she leads the City’s work on UK and EU policy, global trade and sustainable finance.

Previously she was Head of Policy at TheCityUK and held roles at Germany’s Permanent Representation to the EU and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Prague. Kerstin holds degrees in Public Policy and European Politics from the London School of Economics and the University of Passau.

Mark is a high-profile leader in UK Asset Management Distribution with over 40 years’ experience. An excellent track record in bringing different Asset Management businesses to the UK market with responsibility for delivering strategic goals. Proven expertise in building and leading teams across key distribution functions, sales, client services, product development within the UK Retail Distribution Market.

Mark Joined the financial industry in July 1979 at Sun Alliance Group in Manchester.

Jérôme Wigny became a member of the Luxembourg Bar in 1994 and a partner of Elvinger Hoss Prussen in 2001.

He specialises in investment funds (UCITS and AIFs, in particular those pursuing alternative strategies) as well as management companies and alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs).

He is a member of various commissions of the “Luxembourg Association of Investment Funds” (ALFI) and co-chairs the Hedge Fund commission. He is also a member of the investment fund committee of the “Luxembourg Directors’ Institute” (ILA) and of the “Haut Comité de la Place Financière (HCPF), the advisory committee to the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance.

He holds a “licence en droit belge” from the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve. He is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, in particular in relation to investment fund-related topics, and is an invited professor at Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Liège (Belgium).