Luxembourg meets Madrid

Gilles Roth was born on 1 March 1967 in Luxembourg.

After graduating from the Athénée de Luxembourg in 1986, Gilles Roth studied law at the Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg and the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium, where he obtained a degree in law. He then completed his university studies in 1991 with a degree in business administration and management from the Institut d’Administration et de Gestion of UCL.

Following the legislative elections of 8 October 2023, Gilles Roth was appointed Minister of Finance on 17 November 2023 in the coalition government formed by the Christian Social Party (CSV) and the Democratic Party (DP).

Gilles Roth was elected municipal councillor in 1993 and became mayor of Mamer in 2000. Gilles Roth joined the Parliament in April 2007 and in 2013 he became Chairman of the CSV political group. Successively re-elected to Parliament, he co-chaired this political group from 2021 until he joined the Government. From 1991 to 1994, Gilles Roth practised as a lawyer, then as Avocat à la Cour at the Luxembourg Bar. In 1995, he became a government attaché at the Ministry of Finance, before being seconded to the Luxembourg Court of Auditors and the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union in Brussels. In 1998, he returned to the Ministry of Finance and became government advisor (Conseiller), then senior government advisor (Premier Conseiller de Gouvernement). He also held the position of Government Delegate to the Administrative Jurisdictions until 2007.

Simon Gorbutt is Deputy CEO at Luxembourg for Finance, the Agency for the Development of the Financial Centre.

A lawyer qualified in England and Wales, and Ireland, Simon has worked in financial services in Luxembourg since 2007. He joined LFF from a leading Luxembourg provider of unit-linked insurance solutions where he was the company’s Legal and Tax Counsel for the UK, Northern Europe, Asia and International and, later, Director and Head of Wealth Planning, leading a team of specialists working on a global basis at the intersection of private banking, asset management, succession planning and insurance.

A qualified Director, Simon is a founding member of STEP Benelux a.s.b.l. and has served as Chairman of the STEP Benelux Board. He is a Board member of the Luxembourg Association of Family Offices and has also served as Chair of the UK and DAC 6 Working Groups at the Luxembourg Association des Compagnies d’Assurances et de Réassurances, Chair of the AmCham Luxembourg Insurance Committee and Deputy Chair of the Tax Committee at the Association of International Life Offices. Simon teaches on the Masters in Wealth Management at the University of Luxembourg, and on the International Management of Family Wealth programme at the International University of Monaco.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Law, and has received the Certified Digital Asset Advisor designation.

Alejandra Kindelán is president of the Spanish Banking Association and of the AEB Foundation since April 2022. She is also vice-president of the CEOE and a member of the Institute of Economic Studies, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Financial Studies and the Observatory of the School of Industrial Organization.

Until her appointment at the AEB, she was head of the Research, Public Policy and Institutional Relations Department at Banco Santander, where she was also a director of Banco Santander’s consumer finance unit in Europe (SCF) and of Santander Argentina.

Between 2006 and 2012, she chaired the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Banking Federation and has been a member of the Regulatory Committee of the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Prior to joining Santander, she worked as a consultant for the World Bank. In 1994, she joined the Research Department of Banco Central Hispano – which later merged with Santander – to work as an analyst of the international economy. In 2001, she was appointed head of the Research and Public Policy Department at the Santander Group.

Alejandra holds a degree in Economics and Political Science from Wellesley College (Wellesley, Massachusetts) and has completed a business management program (PDG) at IESE (Madrid) and the banking studies program at INSEAD (Fontainebleau).