10 December 2020
Digital Event hosted by LFF
Registrations closed
programmeFocus on 2021
Date & Time
-
Thursday, 10 December 2020
from 11:00 to 12:30
Location
- Digital Event hosted by LFF
Luxembourg for Finance invites you to join our livestream session:
FOCUS ON 2021
Thursday, 10 December 2020
11:00-12:30 CET
December sees the curtain closing on a year that many will certainly wish to forget. Volatility and poor performance dogged markets for the better part of the year, and while recent news on vaccines has brought a sliver of hope to a tumultuous 2020, much still remains to be seen.
The question that now moves front of mind is what does 2021 hold for financial services: do we expect continued uncertainty, or will the ball drop signal a new beginning? Our “Focus on 2021” aims to answer this, bringing together financial experts from Luxembourg to provide their views on what’s next.
HE Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, will be interviewed by our CEO, Nicolas Mackel on what the future will hold in 2021.
In our panel discussion that follows, Rajaa Mekouar, Head of Private Equity, Converginvest Management, Yves Nosbusch, Chief Economist, BGL BNP Paribas, and Keith O’Donnell, Managing Partner, ATOZ Tax Advisers Luxembourg, will provide their perspectives on the topic of “2021: More Turmoil and Uncertainty or a New Beginning?”
As always, interactive polls and a Q&A session will provide our audience the opportunity to engage with our experts.
For the complete programme, please see below.
To access the Focus on 2021 Replay, please click on the image below:
Programme
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11:00
Welcome Address
Nicolas Mackel, CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
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11:05
The Political View on 2021
HE Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg
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11:20
2021: More Turmoil and Uncertainty or a New Beginning?
Moderator: Nicolas Mackel, CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
Rajaa Mekouar, Head of Private Equity, Converginvest Management
Yves Nosbusch, Chief Economist, BGL BNP Paribas
Keith O'Donnell, Managing Partner, ATOZ Tax Advisers Luxembourg
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12:00
Q&A
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12:15
Closing Remarks
Nicolas Mackel, CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
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Speakers

HE Xavier Bettel
Prime Minister of Luxembourg
Contact:
Following the legislative elections of October 2018, Xavier Bettel is currently serving in his second term as Prime Minister and Minister of State of Luxembourg in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party and the Green Party : on 5 December 2018 he was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media, Minister for Religious Affairs, Minister for Digitalisation and Minister for Administrative Reform.
A member of the DP since 1989, Xavier Bettel was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1999, at the age of 26. He was since reelected in 2004, 2009, 2013 and 2018.
At local level, Xavier Bettel was as municipal councilor (2000-2005) and later alderman (2005-2011) for the City of Luxembourg. As of 2011, he assumed the role of mayor – an office he held until his appointment as Prime Minister in December 2013.
Xavier Bettel holds a master’s degree in public and European law and a post-graduate diploma of advanced studies in political sciences and public law from the University of Nancy.

Nicolas Mackel
CEO, Luxembourg for Finance
Contact:
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.

Rajaa Mekouar
Founder and CEO, Calista Direct Investors
Contact:
Rajaa is a PE investor and financial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience across private markets globally. She worked as a GP in different funds focused on the mid markets and as an LP with family offices in UK and across Europe. She is the founder and CEO of Calista Direct Investors, an independent buyside advisory and co-investment platform dedicated to sourcing and selecting investments for private investors (www.calista-directinvestors.eu).
Rajaa sits on several PE-related family-owned boards in Luxembourg where she moved in 2016, after 15 years in London. She was awarded “Inspirational Woman in Finance” in 2020 and led the Luxembourg Private Equity Association (LPEA), between 2018 and 2020. There, she launched the PE4W platform to promote Women in PE and the LPEA Insights conference series. Rajaa also supports young artists and musicians and participates in local charity projects.
Rajaa was born and raised in Morocco, studied in France and spent most of her career in the UK. She speaks 6 languages and is a graduate of HEC Paris (Grande Ecole) and INSEAD (MBA).

Yves Nosbusch
Member of the Executive Committee & Chief Economist, BGL BNP Paribas
Contact:
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.

Keith O’Donnell
Managing Partner, ATOZ Tax Advisers Luxembourg
Contact:
Keith O’Donnell is a founding Partner and the Managing Partner of ATOZ.
A tax professional since 1988, Keith has experience in advising international groups on the design and implementation of global tax strategies. He is/has been actively involved in several key tax international bodies including the OECD’s collective investment vehicle ICG and the TRACE BAG.
Keith is the chairman of the Luxembourg chapter of IFA, the Chair of ALFI Tax Commission, the Chair of the INREV Tax Committee and member of other Luxembourg advisory and industry bodies. Keith is also board member and Real Estate Head of Taxand.
Keith is a regular author and speaker at professional and academic conferences. He studied Law then qualified as a Tax Adviser and as a Chartered Accountant in Ireland and Luxembourg, and has completed numerous post-qualification continuing education programmes.