2014 European Annual Meeting

Overview

Who Attends

Senior executives from Europe, Middle East and Africa insurance and financial services companies gain insight and enjoy excellent networking events at the European Annual Meeting. In recent years the conference has hosted an average of 100 chief executive officers, managing directors, presidents and department heads of distribution, marketing, sales, underwriting, human resources, and administration from over 26 countries.

Highlights

Each year LIMRA connects industry leaders to the knowledge, best practices, and people that provide key insights into the challenges they are facing. LIMRA’S European Annual meeting is a source for the strategic and tactical information they need to address these issues.

The conference focuses on current topics affecting insurance and financial services companies conducting business and competing in Europe.

This year, with the theme “Winning Strategies for Tomorrow” the conference will focus on :

Bancassurance
Big Data
Social Media
Management
Marketing

Speakers

Uriel Alvarado

Chief Marketing & Public Relations Officer, Saxo Capital Markets UK

Uriel Alvarado

Chief Marketing & Public Relations Officer, Saxo Capital Markets UK

Uriel Alvarado is a highly experienced, senior financial services marketer. In his current role as Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer, he drives all phases of Marketing, Brand Management and Public Relations strategy for Saxo Capital Markets. He has held numerous senior marketing and PR roles within the Saxo Bank Group including: Global Chief Marketing and Public Relations Officer, ForexTrading, a trade name of FT World Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary broker in the Saxo Bank Group.

Head of Marketing for Iberia and Latin America, where he developed Sala de Inversion, an online trading community. Uriel has diverse experience gained through his studies and work in several countries including Denmark, Mexico, Cyprus, Switzerland, Spain and Japan. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Danish and English.

Before joining Saxo Bank, Uriel worked as Marketing and Strategy Manager at a business and branding consultancy, design:success, and co-founded a digital creative marketing agency, The Lighthouse.

Marc Bezançon

CBP Vice Chairman, France

Marc Bezançon

CBP Vice Chairman, France

Bezançon began his career at the Ministry of Finance where he participated in the negotiation of European Directives for Finance Insurance in Brussels.

He continued his career at Crédit Lyonnais where he created the Insurance Department. He was one of the founders of Bancassurance, with, in particular, the implementation of insurance brokerage companies in France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina and reinsurance companies in Luxembourg and Ireland.

Sales Manager of the CRÉDIT LYONNAIS retail network, he was chairman of a consumer credit company FINALION, a subsidiary of CETELEM and CRÉDIT LYONNAIS.

After creating CBP's international subsidiaries, he is currently Vice Chairman of CBP, very involved in the business development of the group. He has many contacts with the French (Treasury and the General Inspectorate of Finance on the regulation evolution of CPI) and European authorities (through EUROFINAS, especially with EIOPA and the Internal Market and Services Directorate General) on major legal developments in this sector.

Åsa Nilsson Billme

Diversity Director, Global Diversity Certification Foundation

Åsa Nilsson Billme

Diversity Director, Global Diversity Certification Foundation

Åsa Nilsson Billme is specialized in the area of strategic diversity, with expertise within operational, organizational, and business development through diversity and inclusion.

Her services include advice, consultancy, project management and training for all levels in companies and organizations that need guidance in their diversity efforts. Diversity training and education is a key focus area for her, and she has authored and produced a number of tools and materials in this area.

Dr Barbara Fasolo

Associate Professor in Behavioural Science, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr Barbara Fasolo

Associate Professor in Behavioural Science, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr Barbara Fasolo is Associate Professor in Behavioural Science in the Department of Management of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She currently serves as Head of the Behavioural Research Lab, Director of the Executive Master in Behavioural Science, and on the Department of Health Behavioural Insights Expert Advisory Panel.

Barbara is an expert in behavioural decision-making, behavioural change, behavioural public policy, with a specific interest in digital nudging and choice architecture.

Her background is inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural: Economics (BSc, Distinction, Bocconi University, Italy), decision sciences (MSc, Distinction, London School of Economics, UK), and experimental psychology (PhD, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA). She was Visiting Professor at IESE Business School (2012/13, Barcelona), Expert-in-Secondment for the European Medicines Agency (2009-12, London) and Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development (2002-04, Berlin).

Barbara's research has been published in more than 50 outlets, including leading academic journals, (PNAS and the Annual Review of Psychology), books and invited chapters, and has been covered in media outlets such as The Harvard Business Review. She is a member of the Behavioural Science and Policy Association, the Society of Judgment and Decision Making and the European Association of Decision Making.

Her lab, online, and field research studies choices faced by patients, consumers, and professionals in the public (e.g., for the European Medicines Agency, the King's Fund, and the European Commission) and private sector. Barbara consults individuals and organisations keen to study and improve their decision behaviour, and design smart and kind choice architecture.

Jean-Marie Guian

President, SPB Group

Jean-Marie Guian

President, SPB Group

Jean-Marie Guian graduated from the HEC Management School and from a Master of Community of European Management Schools in 1990. After two years of cooperation in Asia, he began his career in 1992 as a trader in emerging markets at Société Générale (1992-1994). He joined SPB in 1994 to manage the quality process, then he was appointed Chief Financial Officer (1996-1998), Managing Director of the Insurance business (1998-2000) and President and CEO of SPB Group on 15 December 2000.

He is father of seven children and spends his free time with his family, but also in sports, especially triathlon and ski touring.

Jayaraman Karthik

Technology Strategist, Researcher and Columnist

Jayaraman Karthik

Technology Strategist, Researcher and Columnist

Karthik has consulted for leading technology firms such as Red Hat, Novell, Sun Microsystems and advised the boards and senior management of startup companies, venture capital and private equity firms. Karthik frequently writes for the largest selling business newspaper in Norway DN and has also contributed to various newspapers and magazines in different continents.

He has spoken in leading technology and finance conferences in Asia and Europe. His current focus is on the shift from centralized finance and technological systems to distributed autonomous peer to peer systems such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitmessage and Twister, he is an adviser to various think tanks such as the foundation for peer2peer alternatives and regularly consults for leading banks and management consulting firms.

Karthik recently submitted his PhD to the university of Oslo and holds an MBA from the Norwegian business school and Fudan university (Norway and China), an MS in Computer Science from the Royal institute of technology (Sweden)

Robert A. Kerzner, CLU, ChFC

As president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA and their parent organization, LL Global, Inc., Bob Kerzner leads the world’s largest association of life insurance and financial services companies. In 2010, he led the merger of LIMRA and LOMA, which together represent more than 1,200 members across 64 countries, including most of the world’s largest life insurance companies.

Before joining LIMRA in 2004, Kerzner was executive vice president and head of the individual life division of Hartford Life, Inc. Under his leadership, the division experienced dramatic growth and record financial performance.

Kerzner is a leading voice in the life insurance, retirement and financial services industry, recently speaking at events held by the Department of Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO), the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and Life Insurance Commission of New York (LICONY). He is regularly sought out by leading national publications, like the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and USA Today, as well as a host of trade and other business media outlets, to provide insight into industry issues and trends.

Kerzner is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University.

Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele

Chief Executive Officer, Botswana Life Insurance Limited

Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele

Chief Executive Officer, Botswana Life Insurance Limited

Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele is the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Life Insurance Limited, the largest and oldest life insurance company in Botswana with a market share of more than 80% and more than 200, 000 individual clients and over 250,000 active individual life policies. She's an accomplished insurance professional, a business leader and executive with over twenty years' experience in life insurance.

Under her leadership, Botswana Life has undergone significant transformation, from a traditional and conservative company to a large but agile, forward looking and customer responsive institution. Examples of this transformation include a number of initiatives, including but not limited to the implementation of a fully-fledged call centre, introduction of multiple distribution channels - bancassurance, mobile money, post office; introduction of a LifeRewards a prepaid visa card and a loyalty card. The company continues to look for innovative ways of maintaining its competitive edge by embracing new technological solutions.

Ms. Lesetedi-Letegele is the current President of the Insurance Council of Botswana and sits on two Boards, a reinsurance company and a funeral services group.

Veren Moodley

Head of Client Solutio, Momentum South Africa

Veren Moodley

Head of Client Solutio, Momentum South Africa

Moodley's experience in the financial services industry ranges over a diverse range of fields, including health care, life insurance, Employee Benefits (Group Risk), short-term insurance, financial advice and planning as well as loyalty, rewards and wellness. Each of his roles within these areas have also spanned across a wide range of areas, including actuarial modelling, valuations, profit measurement, pricing, product development, data analytics, business intelligence, research as well as technical marketing.

He currently works at Momentum, a subsidiary of the MMI Group. MMI focuses on Insurance and Investments around the world, with a substantial business across many African countries and a current focus on expanding into the rest of the world. Momentum is a client-centric business, taking care of clients from all walks of life, including corporate clients. His current role, Head of Client Solutions, has Product Development, Technical Marketing, Research and Data Analytics as distinct centres of excellences.

His team is responsible for building the Financial Wellness client engagement solutions, executing Momentum's Client Value Proposition (CVP) as well as to operationalise human behaviour insight back into the business. This role allows him to work across the entire business; and convert the back-end and technical business acumen into the front-end, softer experience for the client.

Yves Morieux

Senior Partner and Managing Director, Dubai Office of The Boston Consulting Group

Yves Morieux

Senior Partner and Managing Director, Dubai Office of The Boston Consulting Group

As a BCG Fellow and the director of the BCG Institute for Organization, he divides his time between leading research and advising senior executives of multinational corporations and public-sector entities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific on their strategies and organizational transformations. He has been based in Paris, Mumbai, Washington DC and is now in the Dubai office of BCG.

Yves has contributed to the development of organization theory relating to the behavioral and structural conditions for economic value creation and competitive advantage. Turning these insights into practice with the simple rules, he has helped CEOs with their most critical challenges, for instance, moving their companies from quasi bankruptcy to industry leadership, or transforming the business model and culture to reach new heights, or successfully managing groundbreaking innovations.

Bernard Retali

President LIMRA Europe, Africa & Middle East

Bernard Retali

President LIMRA Europe, Africa & Middle East

Bernard is responsible for LIMRA’s overall operations in Europe, Middle East & Africa. Under Bernard’s leadership LIMRA Europe will deliver a market leading value proposition to better serve its membership. Bernard is an experienced insurance industry executive and consultant with over 20 years experience.

During his career as an executive in the insurance industry, he served for more than ten years as CEO and Chairman of life insurance companies and Pension Funds in Poland, Portugal and Czech Republic. In 2003, Bernard Retali founded two companies in Barcelona: INOV Finance consulting company mainly dedicated to the insurance and bancassurance industry and INOV Insurance broker dedicated to the expat community based in Spain.

Nicolas Schimel

Chief Executive
Aviva France
Chairman & Chief Executive
Union Financière de France

Nicolas Schimel

Chief Executive
Aviva France
Chairman & Chief Executive
Union Financière de France

Nicolas is a member of the Executive & Strategic Committee of Aviva France and was appointed Chief Executive, Aviva France in December 2012. He is also the Chairman of the board and Chief Executive of Union Financière de France (UFF), the independent wealth management advisory service and listed subsidiary of Aviva France. Previously, he had assumed the role of Interim Chief Executive, Aviva France between November 2010 and July 2011 and Distribution Director, Aviva France in 2009. During his career with the Aviva Group, he has created a unified distribution network in Aviva France and successfully steered a benign UFF business on the path to long term growth through a financial crisis.

Nicolas has extensive experience in leadership roles across life, general insurance and wealth management and contributes to debate on best professional practices and innovation within the French and global financial services landscapes.

Marie-Pierre Schmitz

CEO, Benta Berry

Marie-Pierre Schmitz

CEO, Benta Berry

Marie-Pierre Schmitz has 23 years experience in Finance, and Capital Markets (Indosuez Bank, Paribas Asset Management, co-head/co-founder of an Alternative Asset Management Company in Paris, licensed by the AMF as a provider of Alternative portfolio management services). Since 2010 she is C.E.O Founder of BENTA BERRY, a new Skin Care Brand developed in collaboration with Dr. Naima Zerrouk from the prestigious Université Paris-Descartes.

Registration

Registration Fees

Standard Rates
LIMRA Member: $1,609 USD
Non-member: $1,939 USD

Special Discounts

Special discount: -33% from the 3rd attendee from a same company, provided that the 2 first attendees pay full price email customer.service@limra.com for more information on this discount.

*If you need a visa please contact us as soon as possible and we will provide you with an invitation letter for the competent authorities.

Hotel / Venue

Hotel Pullman, Eiffel Tower
18 Avenue de Suffren
75015 Paris, France

Hotel Booking
We have negotiated special rates for this year's attendees. To benefit from them please download and print the PDF file below, fill out the form and sign it, then scan it and send it back to The Pullman Hotel (contact details in the PDF file)

PLEASE FILL IN THE REGISTER FORM AND SEND IT NO LATER THAN SEPTEMBER 1, 2014. After this date, reservation and price will be subjected to hotel availability.

Hotel Reservation Form (September 21 - 22)

Gala Dinner - Pavillon Dauphine
Attire: The Welcome Drink is smart casual and the Gala Dinner is business formal for gentlemen and cocktail for ladies.

Please note that hotel rates will go up after the cut-off date or when the meeting room block sells out, whichever comes first. Make your reservations early to be able to take advantage of our discounted rates.