Gorazd Čibej, LL.M, has been Managing Director of the Insurance Supervision Agency of Slovenia (AZN) since January 2018 and since November 2017, he has also been the President of the Council of Experts of AZN. He is a member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and has also been appointed a member of the Supervisory Steering Committee and a substitute member of the Mediation Panel. He is a Regional Co-ordinator for the CEET region within the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). Since 2019 he has also been a member of the Council of Securities Market Agency of Slovenia.

He graduated cum laude from the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana in 2000 and he holds a Master's Degree in European Law (LL.M) from Lund University, Sweden, which he attained in 2001. Later in 2016 he completed the Certified International Business Negotiation Programme at the Mitchell Hamline University, USA and in 2017 he participated in advanced training in the field of Corporate Governance at the Harvard University, USA.

Gorazd is a regular speaker at insurance conferences and webinars at home and abroad.

On this occasion, Ms Hielkema, said: “It is a great hounour to take up this important role, at such a challenging time. Climate change, recovery from the pandemic and digitalisation are all huge challenges for society, but they are also all areas where insurance companies and pension fund providers can play a significant role in mitigating the risks and fostering a more resilient society. I am looking forward to working together with the members of the Board of Supervisors, consumer groups, industry, policymakers and the committed staff of this well-functioning organisation with a common goal - protection of European consumers and beneficiaries and financial stability."

Background

The Council of the European Union has adopted on 26 May 2021 a decision to appoint Ms Hielkema based on the shortlist of candidates for the position of chairperson drawn up by EIOPA’s Board of Supervisors and following confirmation by the European Parliament. Ms Hielkema will serve as Chairperson of EIOPA for a period of five years. This term can be renewed once.

Prior to becoming EIOPA Chairperson, she was director for insurance supervision at the Dutch central bank, where she was responsible for the prudential supervision of the Dutch insurance sector. She holds a European Master’s in law and economics and a Master’s in Russian studies.

Igor Lončarski is an associate professor of Finance at the School of Economics and
Business, University of Ljubljana, where he is an academic director of the MSc in Quantitative
Finance and Actuarial Sciences.

Igor holds a PhD from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. In the past he was a visiting
researcher at Monash University in Melbourne Australia, while currently being a visiting
associate professor at TIAS School for Business and Society at Tilburg University in the
Netherlands.

Igor is an expert in corporate Finance, corporate valuation, and empirical asset pricing. He
published research in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal
of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Financial Management, Financial
Analysts Journal, and International Review of Financial Analysis, among others. He is the
editor-in-chief of Risk Management, co-editor in chief of Economic and Business Review, a
member of the editorial board of the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, a subject
editor of Journal of Multinational Financial Management, and an associate editor of the
Emerging Markets Review and International Review of Financial Analysis. His current
research interests and research projects relate to credit risk and credit spreads, ethics, insider
trading, market manipulation, and general application of textual (sentiment) analysis to finance
and multifactor asset pricing models.

Apart from teaching various graduate finance courses, he has also given seminars and taught
various business academies for the most prominent Slovenian financial institutions, the
Slovenian Institute of Auditors, Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, European Commission,
and European Parliament in Luxembourg.

Michaela Koller is director general of Insurance Europe, the European insurance and reinsurance federation. She is currently also secretary general of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations (GFIA).

Michaela has worked in Brussels for the last 30 years. Prior to joining Insurance Europe in February 2007, she held management positions in different banking trade bodies. Michaela has served as a member of various consumer/industry groups and advisory groups established by the European Commission.

Uroš is the CFO and Member of the Management Board at Triglav Group. He joined Triglav Group in 2001, where he started in equity research and continued as a portfolio manager. After 3 years he took over Corporate finance. In 2005, he was promoted to the position of an Executive Director – Finance at Triglav Group, where he stayed till 2014 when he became member of the Management Board. During his career he had also performed the role of the CEO of a real-estate company Slovenijales Inc., and had been acting as a portfolio manager of a pension fund management company in Serbia.

He has assumed many non-executive board positions in companies from Triglav Group and outside. Uroš was a president of CFA Society Slovenia from 2010 until 2018. He is President of the Board of Issuers at the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.

Monica Mächler serves as member of the board of directors of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd., Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. and of Cembra Money Bank AG. She is also active in non profit organisations by serving on the board of the Europa Institut at the University of Zurich and chairing the Advisory Board of the International Cen-ter of Insurance Regulation at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. In addition she speaks, lectures and publishes in Switzerland and abroad on matters of financial market regulation, Private International Law and business law.

From January 2009 to September 2012 she served as Vice Chair of the board of directors of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA after having led the Federal Office of Private Insurance in 2007 and 2008. In the International Association of Insurance Supervisors she was a member of the Executive Commit-tee and chaired the Technical Committee (now called Policy Development Commit-tee) until September 2012.

After her doctoral thesis in Private International Law at the University of Zurich in 1984 Monica Mächler was practicing in a business oriented law firm in Zurich as an attorney-at-law. In 1990 she joined the group legal department of Zurich Insurance Group where she was promoted to the role of Group General Counsel and Head of the Board Secretariat in 1999 and became a member of the Group Management Board in 2001. Monica Mächler also served as a member of various expert commis-sions of the Swiss Confederation on matters of financial market regulation.

Professor Karel Van Hulle lectures at the Economics and Business Faculty of the KU Leuven and at the Economics Faculty of the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

He is Chairman of the Conflicts of Interest Oversight Committee of the European Money Markets Institute and is a member of the Board of the Bermuda Monetary Authority. He served as a member of the Public Interest Oversight Board from March 2016 until April 2021.

He started his professional career with the Belgian Banking Commission (1976-1984) where he was responsible for the Secretariat of the newly created Belgian accounting standards commission.
He joined the European Commission in 1984. After taking up responsibility for accounting standards, financial reporting, auditing and company law, including corporate governance, he became head of insurance and pensions in 2004, a position that he held until his retirement in March 2013. As head of insurance and pensions, he was in particular responsible for the development of Solvency II and represented the EC within EIOPA and within the technical committee of the IAIS.

Van Hulle is a lawyer by training. He studied law at the KU Leuven and at the Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee
(USA).

The American Accounting Association in 1990, Distinguished Fellow of the IAIS in 2013 and Honorary Fellow of the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries nominated Professor Van Hulle Distinguished International Lecturer in Accounting in 2014.

In 2019, he summarised his experience with the development of Solvency II in a book “Solvency Requirements for EU Insurers. Solvency II is good for you”, Intersentia, Cambridge, Antwerp, Chicago, ISBN 978-1-78068-177-1, 727 p.

Experienced Management Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the insurance industry. Skilled in Management, Strategic Planning, Revisions, Business Development, and Entrepreneurship. Strong business development professional with a Ph.D. in Economics.

Alenka has over 40 years of work experience in managing positions and entrepreneurship in CEE region. She is founder and majority owner of PRVA Group, financial and insurance holding currently containing 4 pension funds and 1 insurance company and minority holding of bank in 4 countries of CEE. Her entire career she was involved in M&A be it as strategic buyer (organic growth of funds and new elderly retirement businesses) or as portfolio investment.

Ante Žigman, PhD, is the President of the Board of Hanfa whose scope of competence includes a wide range of financial non-banking services, from regulation and supervision of the capital market, through insurance to investment and pension funds.
He is a member of the Mediation Panel of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) as a representative of the CEET region (Central and Eastern Europe and Transcaucasia). He actively participates in the work of these international bodies.

Prior to his appointment as the Head of Hanfa, he held a number of important functions, some of them being: Assistant Minister of Finance for Macroeconomic Analysis and Planning, followed by Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance. He has also served as the vice president of the Committee for Fiscal Policy of the Croatian Parliament, and member of the Economic and Financial Committee's Sub-Committee on EU Sovereign Debt Markets (ESDM). In the banking sector, he was a Board Member of the Partner Bank, as well the Head of Macroeconomic and Financial Research Division and the Chief Economist at the Raiffeisen Bank in Croatia. He has spent a significant part of his career at the Croatian National Bank where he worked in the Office of the Governor until being appointed to the current position.

He has written numerous scientific and expert papers in the field of fiscal policy and finance and is an active lecturer in the area of economics and finance.

Born 1973 in Slovenia
1993 to 2001 studied Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business
2001 to 2002 Generali Academy “Corporate Managerial Training” 2005 Generali Group Ulysses Top-Management-Programme
2013 to 2019 Generali Group training Duke Business School, IMD, Wharton Business School
2021 to 2022 Generali Group training London Business School

1999 to 2020 Generali companies in Slovenia:
1999 to 2000 Generali Zavarovalnica d.d., Laibach: Controlling
2000 to 2002 Generali Zavarovalnica d.d., Laibach: Head of Internal Audit
2002 to 2004 Generali Zavarovalnica d.d., Laibach: Head of Finances
2004 to 2007 Generali Zavarovalnica d.d., Laibach: Member of the Management Board (CFO)
2008 to 2013 Generali Zavarovalnica d.d., Laibach: Chairman of the Management Board (CEO)
2019 to 2020 Generali Adriatic Slovenica Zavarovalna družba d.d., Koper - Capodistria: Chairman of the Management Board (CEO)

Since 2013 Generali CEE Holding B.V, Prague:
2013 to April 2020 Member of the Executive Committees – Chief Financial Officer in the Austria, CEE & Russia Region
Since May 2020 Member of the Executive Committees – Chief Distribution Officer in the Austria & CEE Region (until March 2022 Austria, CEE & Russia Region)

Since May 2020 Generali Versicherung AG, Vienna: Chairman of the Management Board – Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Paul is Chair of the EU Affairs Committee of BIPAR (European Federation of Insurance and Financial Intermediary Associations). He is also Managing Director of ARB Underwriting/AR Brassington Irish retail and wholesale Insurance brokerages, a Director of Allied Irish Bank Insurance Services and CGPA Europe.

Over his career in the insurance industry Paul was previously, Chief Executive of the Irish Brokers Association, which was recognised under statute as a regulatory body, Director of the National Investor Compensation Company, a Partner in Irelands largest insurance brokerage Coyle Hamilton. Paul has also served as President of the Irish Brokers Association, President of BIPAR (European Federation of Insurance Intermediary Associations), and President of WFII (World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries). He was a member of both the consultative panel of CEIOPS and of the stakeholder group of EIOPA.

Prof. dr Ksenija Denčić-Mihajlov
Ksenija Denčić-Mihajlov is a Full Professor at the University of Nis, Faculty of Economics, Serbia, where she teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in the field of Corporate finance and Business restructuring. She is a member of the Center of scientific, interdisciplinary risk and sustainability management (ZWIRN) at the Ostfalia University, Germany, a founding member of the Eastern European Risk Insurance Association (EERIA) and the Associated Editor of the South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, the official journal of the Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region.

She has been involved in various international educational and research projects such as Erasmus+ Jean Monnet and TEMPUS programs. Currently, she works as a Research coordinator of the Jean Monnet Erasmus + project “Sustainable Finance and Insurance: EU Principles, Practices and Challenges”, coordinated by the University of Niš, Serbia.

As an author or co-author, dr Denčić-Mihajlov published several textbooks and monographs and a significant number of scientific papers in highly recognized international journals. Her key areas of scientific research interest are sustainable finance and ESG investing, sustainability reporting, corporate financing and restructuring.

Born in Trieste, degree in Physics, more than 40 years experience in the Italian insurance industry in primary Groups (Generali, Allianz, Unipol). Innovator, founder of the Italian Direct Insurance market and CEO of different companies. Strong managerial skills in Technical Excellence in Motor Insurance pricing & underwriting both in Italy and in large European multinational environment.

Professional journalist, university professor of IT Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science and Big Data Management and guest speaker in conferences in 10 different countries.