Focus on 2021

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 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 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 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 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.