Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Moderators

Jyrki Katainen

Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, European Commission

Jyrki Katainen is currently Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. He joined the college in July 2014 as Vice-President for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the euro.

Before that he served as Prime Minister of Finland, 2011 - 2014 and Minister of Finance, 2007 - 2011. He was Member of Finnish Parliament 1999 - 2014 for the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus).

He was Member of the Finnish Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 2003 - 2007, Member of the Administrative Council of the Finnish Broadcasting Company 2003 - 2005, Member of the Finish Delegation to the Western European Union Parliamentary Assembly 2004 - 2005 and the Deputy Member of the Finnish Delegation to the Nordic Council 2001 -2003.

Jyrki Katainen has MSc in Political Science from the University of Tampere, Finland (1998) and he did an Erasmus exchange year at the University of Leicester, UK.

His hobbies are running, cycling and tennis.

Jes Staley

Group Chief Executive, Barclays

Jes Staley joined Barclays as Group Chief Executive on 1 December 2015.

Jes has nearly four decades of extensive experience in banking and financial services. He worked for more than 30 years at J.P. Morgan, initially training as a commercial banker, and later advancing to the leadership of major businesses involving Equities, Private Banking and Asset Management, and ultimately heading the company’s Global Investment Bank. Most recently, Jes served as Managing Partner at BlueMountain Capital.

Jes holds a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College.

Gottfried Leibbrandt

CEO, SWIFT

Gottfried Leibbrandt is Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT.

Gottfried joined SWIFT in 2005 to focus on the development of the SWIFT2010 strategy. Upon completion of the strategy, he was appointed Head of Standards. In 2007, he was promoted to Head of Marketing. Gottfried ran a global organisation responsible for the development and delivery of SWIFT’s strategic initiatives spanning products & services, standards, innovation, banking, corporate and securities market segments. More recently, Gottfried was a key architect behind the creation of the SWIFT2015 strategy, which is being implemented and remains a priority for the cooperative. He was appointed CEO in July 2012.

Prior to joining SWIFT, Gottfried worked for McKinsey & Company for 18 years as a partner in the Amsterdam office and a co-leader of the European payments practice. He holds a Masters degree in Econometrics and Statistics from the Vrije Universteit Amsterdam and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Gottfried also holds a PhD in Economics from Maastricht University where his thesis was "Payment instruments and network effects: adoption, harmonization and succession of network technologies across countries".

Gottfried is Dutch and married with three children.

Anthony L. Gardner

United States Ambassador to the European Union

Anthony L. Gardner was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union on February 18, 2014. He presented his credentials to European Council President Van Rompuy and European Commission President Barroso on March 18.

Prior to assuming his current position, Ambassador Gardner was Managing Director for six years at Palamon Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in London, that focuses on providing growth capital to fast growing businesses in a wide variety of service sectors throughout Western Europe. In that capacity he managed financing, legal and tax structuring issues related to the firm's acquisitions and divestitures.

Previously, Ambassador Gardner served as an Executive Director in the leveraged finance departments of Bank of America and GE Capital and as a Director in the international acquisitions group of GE International, all based in London. He has also worked as a Senior Associate at international law firms in London, Paris, New York, and Brussels.

Ambassador Gardner has dedicated more than twenty years of his career to U.S.-European affairs, as a government official, lawyer and investor. He served as Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council in 1994-95. During that period, he worked closely with the U.S. Mission to the European Union to launch the New Transatlantic Agenda, a joint commitment to promoting peace and stability, democracy, and development around the world; responding to global challenges; contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic relations; and building bridges across the Atlantic. Ambassador Gardner also participated in the launch of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, an advisory group bringing together executives from leading American and European companies to advocate for a barrier-free transatlantic market.

Prior to his government service, Ambassador Gardner worked with the Treuhandanstalt (German Privatization Ministry) in Berlin, with the Commission des Operations de Bourse in Paris, and as an intern at the Directorate General for Competition Policy at the European Commission in Brussels. He is the author of A New Era in U.S.-EU Relations?: The Clinton Administration and the New Transatlantic Agenda and numerous articles on EU affairs.

Ambassador Gardner holds a BA in Government from Harvard University, an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, a JD from Columbia Law School, and a Masters in Finance from London Business School. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served as Trustee of the Guggenheim UK Charitable Trust, and a Board Member for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Ambassador Gardner is fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish, and also speaks German.

Sylvie Goulard

Member, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament

Sylvie Goulard has been an MEP since 2009. She is a member of the group the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). She is a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), a substitute member of the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) and a member of the temporary TAX2 committee.
 
She is president of the European Parliament Intergroup fighting against poverty which works to ensure that Europe's most deprived persons have a voice at the European level.
 
After her law studies, and having graduated from Sciences Po and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Sylvie Goulard worked as a diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (legal affairs department/policy planning staff) as well as at the Conseil d'Etat. Between 2001 and 2004 she worked with Romano Prodi, during his time as President of the European Commission. 
 
She is the author of Europe : amour ou chambre à part ? (2013), De la démocratie en Europe (2012), co-authored with Mario Monti, L’Europe pour les Nuls (2007), winner of the European Book Prize 2009. 

John Berrigan

Deputy Director General, DG FISMA, European Commission

John Berrigan is currently the Deputy Director General in DG FISMA (Directorate General Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union) of the European Commission.

John has been a Commission official since the mid-1980s and has spent much of that time working on financial-sector issues first in DG ECFIN and now in DG FISMA. He has also worked on monetary policy and exchange-rate analysis in the context of preparations for the introduction of the euro in 1999. In the mid 1990s, he worked for several years with the International Monetary Fund. He was Commission Mission Chief for Portugal from July 2013 to November 2014 in the context of the recent economic assistance programme and has contributed to financial-sector aspects of the assistance programmes for other Member States.

John has a master degree in economics from University College Dublin. He is married with two children.

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi

Chairman, Société Générale

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is Chairman of SNAM, and Chairman of Societe Generale.

He is also Visiting Scholar at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome. He chairs the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the Italian Chapter of the Alumni of the University of Chicago.

From June 2005 to December 2011 he was a Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank. During that period he acted as G7 and G20 Deputy for the euro area.

He started his career in 1983 as an Economist at the Research Department of the Banca d’Italia. In 1994 he moved to the European Monetary Institute, in Frankfurt, to head the Policy Division, to prepare for the creation of the ECB. In October 1998 he became Director General for International Affairs in the Italian Treasury.

He has been the Chairman of the Board of SACE Spa, and member of the Boards of Finmeccanica, MTS, the European Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley International.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago.

He is author of several articles and books on international and European monetary and financial issues (available in www.lorenzobinismaghi.com). He has recently published "Austerity: European Democracies against the Wall" (CEPS, July 2013) and "33 false verità sull'Europa" (Il Mulino, April 2014). He is currently member of the A-List of Commentators for the Financial Times.

He is married and has two children

Christophe Nijdam

Secretary General, Finance Watch

Christophe Nijdam is a banking specialist and Secretary General of Finance Watch, an independent European non-profit association set up in 2011 to act as a public interest counterweight to the powerful financial lobby.

After graduating from Sciences Po Paris, he spent more than a dozen years as a senior executive at a number of large French banks in France and in the USA. He began his career in 1979 at Credit Lyonnais (now Crédit Agricole) New York as a financial analyst and corporate banker. In 1983 he joined the headquarters of the CCF (now HSBC France) as co-head of interest rate and currency derivatives, before returning to the US as a capital markets director. In 1989, he became US General Manager for Crédit du Nord (now Societe Generale Group) in New York.

In the early 1990s, he crossed to the investor side as a financial analyst: He co-founded the independent equity research firm CAPITALACTION in 1994, where he was managing partner. A lecturer at Sciences-Po Paris from 1998 to 2008, he still teaches in the corporate finance and capital markets Executive Masters’ programme.

Immediately prior to deciding to join Finance Watch, Christophe Nijdam was a banking analyst at AlphaValue, a leading independent pan-European equity research firm. He joined Finance Watch in January 2015.

Carmine Di Noia

Commissioner, CONSOB

Graduate degree in Economics at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Doctorate in Economic Theory and Institutions at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata". Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA).
In 1995 he joined Consob as Economist, in the Research Department. In 1998 he moved to the Market Division where in 2000 he became Head of the Market Information Office.
In 2001 he joined Assonime (the Association of the Italian joint-stock companies). In 2003 he was appointed Head of the Capital Markets and Listed Companies Unit and Deputy Director General.
He was Board member of Borsa Italiana S.p.A., chairman of the technical secretariat of the Italian Corporate Governance Committee, member of stakeholder group at ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), and chairman of the Policy Committee at EuropeanIssuers.
He is Vice-Chairman of the Marco Fanno Association. He teaches Financial Market Law and Regulation at the University “Luiss-Guido Carli” in Rome, Italy.
He has published numerous articles in Italian and international journals and jointly authored several books.

Felicia Stanescu

Policy Assistant to the Director General, DG FISMA, European Commission

Felicia Stanescu (Romania, 1972) has over 15 years of international experience in the financial sector, combining public experience of developing European Union financial legislation with private experience of managing complex Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings.

She has been since 2014 Policy Assistant to the Director General in the Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union of the European Commission, advising the Director General on financial services policies.

She has been with the European Commission since 2010 working previously on long-term financing policy aspects, coordinating the Commision’s input to G20, the Financial Stability Board and other international fora on financial regulation, and developing legislation for the post-trading sector (clearing and settlement).

Prior to the European Commission, she worked in the private sector, mainly in banking, managing and advising on Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings. Positions included: Head of Strategy, ALM Management and Manager, Group M&A at BNP Paribas Fortis (Brussels, 2008-2010); Director, Equity Capital Markets at ABN AMRO Rothschild (London, 2003-2008); Assistant Director, Corporate Finance at ABN AMRO (London/Bucharest, 1999-2002). She started her career at KMPG Romania.

Felicia holds a first class degree in Economics from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK (1994) and a degree in Business Administration from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest (1996).

José María Roldán

Chairman and CEO, Spanish Banking Association

Mr. José María Roldán is Chairman and CEO of the Spanish Banking Association since April 2014, after 13 years as Director-General at the Banking Regulation and Financial Stability department of the Bank of Spain and member of its Executive Board. From May 2015, he is also the Vice-President to the European Banking Federation (EBF).

During his tenure in office as Director-General he was part of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), and chaired both, the Standards Implementation Group (SIG) of the BCBS and the Joint Forum during the tenure of the BCBS.

He founded and was the first Chairman of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS); the forerunner of the European Banking Authority (EBA), after being President of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and chaired the extinct Banking Advisory Committee (BAC) of the EU.

Mr. Roldán joined the Bank of Spain as Senior Economist of the Research Department in 1989, but in 1994 he takes up a post at the European Monetary Institute (the forerunner of the European Central Bank) in Frankfurt.

Chris Allen

Global Head of Regulatory Policy, Barclays

Chris is Managing Director and Global Group Head of Regulatory Policy for Barclays. He is also the Head of Legal for Structural Reform across the Group.

In the US he is a member of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee which advises the Chairman and agency on a range of markets matters and in Europe he is a member of ESMA’s Secondary Markets Standing Committee CWG. He is a member of the Bank of England FX Joint Standing Committee and Chairman of its Legal sub-Group. Chris is a member of the BIS Markets Committee FX MPG, working with the global Central Banks in developing a Code of Conduct for Global FX Markets, is co-Chair of the BIS MPG Electronic Trading steering group and he is Chairman of the British Bankers Association Wholesale Policy Committee. Chris is a member of the City of London Steering Committee on China/RMB and is a member of the City of London/City UK International Regulatory Strategy Group Council. Chris has testified before the US Congress on financial markets and the cross border impact of regulation.

Chris previously led the Markets and Trading legal teams in the investment bank, mainly based in London but also spending two years in Singapore.

Prior to joining Barclays, Chris worked at the law firm Baker & McKenzie, based in London, and prior to that he worked as legal advisor to the OM London Exchange and Clearing House, an equity, fixed income and commodity futures and options exchange and clearing house. He is a Barrister in England & Wales.

Jean-Pierre Pinatton

Chair of the Supervisory Board, Oddo & Cie

Jean-Pierre Pinatton is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Oddo & Cie Group with which the Pinatton Group merged in 2000. Oddo is today the largest privately-owned full service investment bank in France. It has recently extended its activities in Germany with the acquisition of BHF Bank.

After 10 years in the Corporate Finance Department at Smith Barney in New-York and Paris, he joined Gilbert Thorp (Member of the Paris Stock Exchange) in 1981, succeeded as General Partner in 1984 and led the brokerage company and the eponymous group.

Otherwise, Jean-Pierre Pinatton is Member of the Stakeholder Group of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and Honorary Chairman of the board of the Association Française des Marchés Financiers (AMAFI), the French Financial markets professional association. He was Member of the board of AMF (the French Capital Market Regulator) from 2003 until May 2011.
Since December 2012 he is a member of the Board of the Commission de Contrôle des Activités Financières (CCAF) of Monaco.

Graduate in Economy of the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC), he holds a Master in Law of the Paris University Law School and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Karel Lannoo

CEO, CEPS

- Chief executive of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 2000, one of the leading independent European think tanks. Published some books and numerous articles in newspapers, specialised magazines and journals on general European public policy, and specific financial regulation and supervision matters. Latest book ‘The Great Financial Plumbing, From Northern Rock to Banking Union’, Rowman and Littlefield, 2015;
- Regular speaker in hearings for national and international institutions (EU Commission, European Parliament and related), at international conferences and in briefings for executives;
- Rapporteur for many CEPS task forces, chaired by senior European officials and business leaders (with Helmut Schlesinger, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Jose-Maria Roldan, Thomas Huertas);
- Directs the European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI) and the European Credit Research Institute (ECRI), both operated by CEPS;
- Independent director of BME (Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles), the listed company that manages the Spanish securities markets (since 2006); Member of the Euribor Steering Committee, European Money Markets Institute (EMMI) (2013 – present); Non-executive director of Lannoo Uitgeverij Group;
- Karel Lannoo holds a baccalaureate in philosophy (1984) and an MA in modern history (1985) from the University of Leuven, Belgium and obtained a postgraduate in European studies (Centre d’Etudes européennes, CEE) from the University of Nancy, France (1986). Before joining CEPS, he worked for STUC (students’ cultural centre), did a stage in the EU Commission (spokesmen service), was employed by an Italian agro-food company (Ferruzzi) and a professional association, and was also active as free-lance journalist.

Stefano Micossi

Director General, Assonime

Born in Bologna, 1946
Degree in Law, Università degli Studi di Milano (1971)
MA (1973) and MPhil (1974), Yale University Graduate School of Economics

Current positions:
Director General, Assonime (since April 1999)
Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Department of Economics (since 1991) [course on the EU Internal Market and Accompanying Policies]
Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the LUISS School of European Political Economy (SEP, since 2013)

Other positions:
Member of the Board of Directors of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (since 2015)
Member of the Board of Directors of CIR Group (since 2009)
Member of the Board of Directors and Executive committee of EuropeanIssuers, the European association of listed companies (since 2009)
Member of the Board of Directors of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels (since 2005)
Member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Milan Stock Exchange
Member and Coordinator of the scientific committee of Confindustria, the Confederation of Italian Industry (since 2008)
Member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Brussels (since 2003)
Founding member and coordinator of EuropEos, an association of leading journalists, jurists, economists and political scientists created in 2003 to foster the European construction

Publications:
Has published extensively in national and international economic journals on macro-economics, international economics and European economic and policy affairs
Has written influential Policy Briefs for CEPS and Vox-Eu, editorial comments for Il Sole 24 Ore, La Stampa, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal Europe, La Voce, Project Syndicate, and at present collaborates regularly with La Repubblica – Affari e Finanza
Co-author of three widely read pamphlets on the financial crisis, “Keep it simple: Policy responses to the financial crisis” (with Carmine Di Noia, Assonime and CEPS, March 2009), “Overcoming too big to fail – A regulatory framework to limit moral hazard and free riding in the financial sector” (with Jacopo Carmassi and Elisabetta Luchetti, Assonime and CEPS, March 2010), “Time to set banking regulation right” (with Jacopo Carmassi), CEPS, March 2012

Former positions:
Chairman of the Board, CIR Group (April 2009 – April 2013)
Director General for Industry at the European Commission (1995-1998)
Director of Economic Research of Confindustria (1988-1994)
Economist (1972-78), Head of Office (1980-85), Assistant Director and then Acting Director (1987-88) of the International Division of the Bank of Italy’s Research Department
Chairman of the Alternates of the Monetary Committee of the European Community
Assistant to the executive director for Italy, IMF (1978-80)

Jeremy Browne

former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; Special Representative for the City, City of London Corporation

Jeremy is the Special Representative for the City to the Europe Union. His role is to represent the UK based financial and professional services sectors at the highest levels in Brussels and in EU Member States, with policy makers, regulators, central bankers, MEPs, Commissioners and officials, national governments and other key opinion formers. He covers a range of EU issues including the UK EU Referendum and the Capital Markets Union.

Jeremy was previously a member of the British Government. He was Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (with responsibility for British relations with Asia and Latin America) and in the Home Office (with responsibility for Crime Prevention). He was the Member of Parliament for Taunton (2005-2015).

The son of a diplomat, Jeremy was born in London and grew up in a number of countries including Belgium, Iran and Zimbabwe. He attended Nottingham University where he was President of the Student’s Union. He is now an international advisor and Honorary Professor of International Relations at the University.

Jeremy lives with his partner Rachel and their daughter Molly in London. His interests include supporting Queens Park Rangers, American politics and twentieth century art.

David Reed

Partner, Head of Financial Services Practice, Kreab

David Reed is a Partner in Kreab Brussels Office, where he leads the EU financial services practice. He has a background from the European Commission’s Asset Management Unit in the Directorate General for the Internal Market & Services, where he worked on issues such as mutual fund regulation, retirement savings markets, and alternative investment fund regulation. Prior to that he worked in London at the UK financial services regulator, the FSA, first as a relationship manager supervising investment firms, and then as regulatory adviser in the Chairman’s office, attached to the International Strategy Team. David’s first jobs were in management consultancy with McKinsey and The Evaluation Partnership, specializing on financial services issues, and in private equity, with Campbell Lutyens.

Roger Hollingsworth

Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Global Government Relations, Managed Funds Association

Roger Hollingsworth is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Global Government Relations for Managed Funds Association and is responsible for the development, implementation, and execution of MFA’s advocacy and outreach efforts before domestic and international policy makers.

Prior to joining MFA, Roger served as the deputy staff director and senior policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee under then-Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) where he, among other responsibilities, helped shepherd the Committee’s policy agenda throughout the 110th Congress, including coordinating the Committee’s legislative and policy response during the earliest stages of the mortgage, credit, and financial crisis, which led to the Committee’s eventual development, and passage, of the landmark Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform legislation. In addition to his work on behalf of Chairman Dodd, Roger spent nearly a decade on Capitol Hill; including stints as deputy chief of staff, legislative director, and senior committee aide to several other United States Senators, including Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).

A native New Yorker, Roger received his B.A. from the University at Albany, State University of New York, and did his graduate work at the University of Maryland.