CAREER
Since 2018: Member of the Executive Board - BNP Paribas Fortis
Since 2015: Member of the Executive Committee - BNP Paribas Fortis
Since 2014: Head of Retail Banking - BNP Paribas Fortis
2009: Head of Alternative Retail Brands - BNP Paribas Fortis
2008: Head of Fortis Consumer Finance and Postal Banking
2007: General Manager, Strategy and Business Development - Fortis Retail Banking
2006: CFO - Fortis Consumer Finance Group
2004: Advisor to the Fortis Group CFO 2001: Internal consultant for Fortis integration-related projects
2000: Co-founder, CEO & Commercial Officer - Smartizens.com
1996: Management Consultant - Accenture
EDUCATION - DIPLOMAS
Civil Engineering, option Physics - Ghent University
Urban Funered is the Chief Executive Officer of the Swedish Securities Markets Association (Svensk Värdepappersmarknad) since February 2019 and has 30+ years of experience from the private financial and legal sector as well as from the public sector. Urban Funered has during his career held senior positions in leading law firms, asset managers, and investment banks in Stockholm, London, Vienna, and New York, after starting his career as a Judge Clerk in Malmö and Helsingborg in the south of Sweden. Urban Funered has held senior positions in the public sector incl. as State Secretary and Senior Advisor to the Swedish Minster for Financial Markets and as Minister (Diplomat) and Financial Services Attaché at the Swedish Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. Urban Funered hold LL.M. and Post-Graduate Degrees in Civil, Banking and Financial law from the University of Lund in Sweden and Queen Mary & Westfield College of London University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration and Economics Degree from the School of Economics and Management at Lund University in Sweden. The Swedish Securities Markets Association was founded in 1908 and represents 24 banks, investment banks and brokers active in Swedish securities markets, for further information please visit www.svenskvardepappersmarknad.se
As Secretary General at EuropeanIssuers since 2016, Florence Bindelle leads the organisation with the objective of representing the interests of companies, including smaller ones, listed on the stock exchanges in Europe and ensuring that EU policy creates an environment in which companies can raise capital through the public markets and can deliver growth over the long term. Florence combines experience in the business and the trade EU affairs sector. She developed and reinforced the positioning of the Issuers on several files at the EU level, building on the expertise of the network of national experts analysing the implications of capital market regulation for the non-financial corporates in company law, corporate governance, and financial regulation. She established the Advisory Council of EuropeanIssuers composed of high-level representatives of the Issuers community from financial to non-financial sectors.
Prior to this, she was the executive director of the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA), where she was responsible for the management of relations with the European Commission and other European organisations, as well as communication and the organisation of events. She also worked in the Brussels office of MAPFRE Re on liability portfolio management and treaty analysis.
She holds a degree in law, an executive MBA, and a post-graduate degree in law and economics, as well as a certificate in risk management. She is also President of the Federation of European and international associations established in Belgium (FAIB) and Honorary President of European Society of Association Executives (ESAE).
Enrico Letta served as Prime Minister of Italy in 2013-2014 and as leader of the Italian Democratic Party in 2021-2023.
He entered politics in 1998, after working as an academic. He was Minister of European affairs in 1998, Minister of Industry in 1999-2001, and Member of the European Parliament from 2004-2009. In 2014, he became dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris.
Today, he is the President of the Institut Jacques Delors and member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. In September 2023 he received a mandate from the European institutions to elaborate a High-Level Report on the future of the Single Market.
Senior Director/Public Policy & Government Affairs
The Bank of New York Mellon
James Cunningham
James Cunningham is a Senior Director within BNY’s global Public Policy & Government Affairs team and has a lead responsibility for BNY positions on European public policy topics.
In his work, he has a specific focus on European regulatory and self-regulatory initiatives relating to capital markets, market infrastructure, digital finance and post-trade services.
He is a member of several regulatory contact groups, including the European Central Bank’s Advisory Group on Market Infrastructures for Securities and Collateral (AMI-SeCo), and the ESMA Post Trading Consultative Working Group. He is also currently co-chair of the AMI-SeCo Securities Group (SEG).
He is an active participant in working groups from several industry associations, including AFME, AGC, EBF and ICMA, and is a regular speaker at industry conferences.
Anne Gaignard has 40 years of experience in the financial markets sector. Anne started her career at Société Générale before joining Euronext for nearly 25 years where she was Head of Development and Head of Client Relations for Western Europe. Then she spent about ten years supporting the development of start-ups in the financial sector and sustainability particularly related to climate and biodiversity. Since January 2024 Anne is Chief Executive Director of Place des Investisseurs. In addition, since June 2022 she has been independent board member of a private listed company and currently she is board member of the European association Better Finance.
Marc has over 30 years of experience in the financial sector.
He is Director General of BEAMA, the Belgian Asset Managers Association, and Director Asset Management at Febelfin, the Belgian Federation of the Financial Sector.
Before joining Febelfin, he served for five years as a member of the executive committee at the private bank Compagnie de Banque Privée Quilvest (now Intesa Sanpaolo).
He began his career in the dealing room of a Japanese bank and later moved to the Banking and Finance Commission (now FSMA), where he held various positions over a span of 24 years, specializing in private banks and asset managers.
He is also a board member of EFAMA, the European Fund and Asset Management Association, and of the Central Labelling Agency, which manages the Towards Sustainability label. Additionally, he teaches at the postgraduate program “asset management” at Odisee.
After completing his law studies and bar training, Hein began working in financial sector supervision in 1991. He started at the Intervention Fund for stockbroking firms, then moved to the Banking, Finance and Insurance Commission (CBFA), where he served as spokesperson during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. He later joined the FSMA, where he was responsible for developing the inspection service.
In 2014, he joined the Cabinet of Minister of Economy Kris Peeters, where he became head of the economic policy unit. In 2017, he returned to financial supervision as Secretary General, tasked with building a new supervisory authority: the College for the Supervision of Statutory Auditors. Since April 2020, he has been the Managing Director of Assuralia.
Benoît van den Hove is the CEO of Euronext Brussels and member of the Managing Board of Euronext Group since July 2023. Benoît has more than 20 years of experience in various roles in capital markets’ and financial markets’ roles, advising Belgian and international clients on the financing topic through capital markets’ transactions and interacting with the regulator. Benoît joined Euronext in July 2018 as a Head of Listing. Prior to joining Euronext, he spent 17 years at ING and 2 years at Linklaters.
Benoît holds a Master’s Degree in Law (KULeuven) and an International Executive MBA (Louvain School of Management).
Mr. Baert obtained a master’s degree in law from the Catholic University of Leuven.
He started his career as a lawyer with Loeff Claeys Verbeke (now Allen & Overy) in Brussels. From 1985 to 1995 he worked at Deutsche Bank where he held various management positions in corporate and retail banking in Belgium and Germany. In 1995 he joined Bpost where he became General Manager Retail, a position he later combined with that of Managing Director of Bpost Bank.
In 2000 he joined the consulting and executive search firm Egon Zehnder. He became a partner in 2006 and specialized in (often international) assignments in the financial and public sector. He worked there from the perspective of talent management in the broadest sense, where he gained a unique view of society and in particular of the financial sector.
In April 2020, he became CEO of Febelfin, the federation of the financial sector in Belgium. In this position, he also holds a seat at, among others, the Board of the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (VBO) and the Executive Committee of the European Banking Federation (EBF).
Chair at International Organization of Securities Commissions | Chairman of the Financial Services and Markets Authority
IOSCO / FSMA
Jean-Paul Servais
Jean‑Paul Servais is Chairman of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), elected in 2022 and re‑elected in 2024. Under his leadership as IOSCO Chairman, IOSCO reached several important milestones in recent years. He also chairs its European Regional Committee. The first Belgian in this role, he further serves as the head of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) and sits on the boards of ESMA and the ESRB. Since 1 January 2025 he chairs the OECD Corporate Governance Committee.
He previously chaired the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board (2017‑2023) and co‑chaired the Monitoring Group regarding audit standard setting (2021‑2023). A part‑time professor in International Business Law at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, University of Brussels), he has authored or co-authored over 500 works on European and international financial supervision and regulation.
Verena Ross is the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). She took up the role on 1 November 2021 and is responsible for representing the Authority as well as preparing the work of and chairing its Board of Supervisors and Management Board. Between 2011 and 2021 Verena Ross served as ESMA’s first Executive Director, when she was responsible for building up the organisation and overseeing its day to day running. Prior to this, Verena held a number of senior posts in the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and was a member of the FSA's Executive Committee. Verena joined the FSA in 1998 to run the Executive Chairman’s office during the regulator’s start-up phase and was briefly a seconded advisor to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission in 2000. She held various positions in the FSA’s Markets Division and was Director of Strategy & Risk Division before becoming Director of the International Division. Verena is a German national. Following studies in Sinology and Economics in Hamburg, Taipei and London (SOAS) she began her career at the Bank of England in 1994, where she worked as an economist and banking supervisor.
CEO. Member of the Executive Committee | Non Executive Director
European Markets / Euroclear Bank
Bernard Frenay
Bernard Frenay is the CEO of European Markets at Euroclear, where he leads initiatives to integrate financial markets and infrastructures across Europe.
His mission is to modernise and enhance client offerings within Euroclear’s Central Securities Depositories, supporting Europe’s position as a global financial powerhouse and advancing its ambition for a Savings and Investment Union.
Before taking on his current role in 2024, Bernard served as Chief Financial Officer from 2015 and was previously the Managing Director and Head of Finance for the Euroclear Group.
He joined Euroclear in 2009 after serving as Deputy Chief Financial Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Pensions
Jan Jambon
Jan Jambon was born on April 26, 1960, in Genk. He studied at the Free University of Brussels, where he obtained a licentiate degree in Computer Science. He later pursued an MBA at the University of Antwerp. He first built a successful career in the corporate world, working for companies such as IBM, SD Worx, Solvus Resource Group, Creyfs, and Bank Card Company.
Political Career
Municipal Councillor in Brasschaat (2007–present)
Alderman for Finance and Local Economy in Brasschaat (2007–2013)
Mayor of Brasschaat (2013–present)
Member of the Chamber of Representatives (2007–2014)
Floor Leader in the Chamber of Representatives (2008–2014)
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Security and the Interior, responsible for Urban Policy and the Buildings Agency (2014–2018) (Michel I Government)
Minister-President of Flanders and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Culture, ICT and Facility Management (2019–2024) (Jambon I Government)
Member of the Flemish Parliament (2024–2025)
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Pensions, responsible for the National Lottery and Federal Cultural Institutions (2025–present) (De Wever I Government)
