Luxembourg offers a work-life balance that is difficult to find anywhere else in the world. Its central location in the heart of Europe, quality of life and ranking as the safest capital in the world, helps the country to remain a world leader in attracting and retaining talent. Meet some of the people of our #MoveToLux campaign who moved to Luxembourg to balance a great career in international financial services with their life.
Rajaa Mekouar-Schneider
Luxembourg is a place that nurtures harmony in and out from its geography to the way people socialise and the way people live, and that’s extremely valuable.
WORK, LIVE AND PLAY
“Luxembourg is a place that nurtures harmony in and out from its geography to the way people socialise and the way people live, and that’s extremely valuable.”
Rajaa Mekouar-Schneider, is a multilingual private equity (PE) investor with twenty years of experience across Europe and emerging markets. She is currently the Head of PE for a Single Family Office based in Luxembourg.
“Luxembourg is obviously a nimble place where you can build business quite fast, and you see more and more investors setting up shop here.”
Rajaa was elected Chairwoman of the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association in July 2018 for a two-year mandate, a challenge she embraces with passion as a convinced advocate of Luxembourg’s potential to play a growing role as a PE hub.
“Traditionally all the largest private equity firms were present in Luxembourg with some sort of structure.What has changed in the last four or five years is now they have real teams on the ground.”
Rajaa’s passion is classical music. An accomplished pianist, she actively supports the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg (OPL), which is in permanent residence at the Philharmonie, one of Europe’s premier concert venues.
“The acoustics are very well reputed at Philharmonie. The architect is world renowned. The way it was built allows the music to come to you from every direction.You still feel able to connect with the orchestra and the conductor in an intense way.”
Julie Kohlmann
We are a team.You have people around you who have very good backgrounds. They are very professional, and this is what I love in Luxembourg.They are able to bring talent from all over the world.
WORK, LIVE AND RALLY
Julie moved to Luxembourg in 2014 at the end of a secondment leading her to the Grand Duchy. BIL, the oldest mul-ti-business bank in Luxembourg, spotted her potential and gave her all the training and support she needed to become a private banker.
“I was starting from nothing compared to the banking sector. BIL, they took me in, they trained me and this is how it started.”
Julie graduated from a French business school with a degree in commerce. She started off her career in the international aviation sector in Paris and Switzerland and in 2014, she decided to explore different career opportunities to enable her to stay on in Luxembourg.
“We are a team.You have people around you who have very good backgrounds. They are very professional, and this is what I love in Luxembourg. They are able to bring talent from all over the world.”
Julie’s passion is her off-road desert rallies. She pilots a 4X4 Land Rover Defender and has competed in seven international rallies. She is training for the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, which will be held in March 2020.
“Piloting a 4×4 is not a question of driving fast, it’s a question of driving correctly.”
Julie appreciates working with clients from all over the world and describes Luxembourg as a good investment place to man- age wealth.
“I hope the next 5 years will be as busy and full of surprises as the last one has been.”