AGEAS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis
- Member of the Council of Advisors
- Senior Fellow at the Brussels
- Visiting Professor at the John Hopkins University
Alicia García Herrero is the Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, holding a PhD in Economics from George Washington University and graduate studies in International Economics at Kiel Institute of World Economics.
Alicia serves as Senior Fellow at the Brussels-based European think-tank BRUEGEL, as non-resident Senior Fellow at the East Asian Institute (EAI) at the National University Singapore (NUS) and adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
As regards advisory positions, Alicia is a member of the Council of Advisors on Economic Affairs to the Spanish Government, as well as member of the Board of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI), the Advisory Board of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and advisor to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's research arm (HKIMR)
Previously, Alicia held the following positions: Member of the Counsel to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Chief Economist for Emerging Markets at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Member of the Asian Research Program at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), Head of the International Economy Division of the Bank of Spain, , Head of Emerging Economies at the Research Department at Banco Santander, and Economist at the International Monetary Fund.
With regard to her academic career, Alicia has served as visiting Professor at the John Hopkins University (SAIS program), the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and the Carlos III University, other than her current position as adjunct professor at HKUST.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investor Relations
Job Titles:
- Senior Investor Relations
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Chairman of the Executive Committee
- Chairman / Chairman of the Ageas Nomination & Corporate Governance Committee
- Chairman of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee
Bart De Smet was born in 1957 and is a Belgian national. He earned a degree in mathematical sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (KULeuven), but also has diplomas in Actuarial Sciences (KULeuven) and Managerial Sciences (KULeuven).
Bart began his career with Argenta in 1982. From 1985 to 1993, he served as Executive Vice President of the Life division at the Belgian subsidiary of the Swiss insurance company Nationale Suisse.
In 1994, he joined ING Insurance Belgium, where he was a member of the ExCo, responsible for individual and group life insurance, health insurance & banking activities. Bart De Smet moved to Fortis in 1998, where he was a member of the management committee of Fortis AG and responsible for Fortis Employee Benefits.
In 2005, he took charge of the Broker Channel at Fortis Insurance Belgium, assuming the position of CEO of Fortis Insurance Belgium in 2007.
In June 2009 he became CEO of Fortis, which was renamed Ageas. In October 2020, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ageas.
Next to his mandates in the financial sector, Bart is also active in other sectors and in non-profit organisations. He is also a founding partner of Tweeperenboom, a non-profit organization with the aim to support people, organizations and networks that are pursuing fundamental change.
Ben Coumans holds a Master's Degree in Law from the University of Leuven and an MBA in General Management from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.
Ben joined Ageas in October 2014 as Director Strategy and Development. In 2018 he became Group Director M&A and in 2021 Group Director Strategy and M&A.
Ben started his professional career at Fortis, where he became Director Development & Acquisitions of Fortis Retail Banking in 2006. In 2008 he joined the investment bank Leonardo & Co as Director to became later Managing Director, after which he joined Ageas.
As of 1 March 2024, Ben has been appointed Managing Director Europe.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- CEO of Movinx GmbH
Carolin Gabor holds a Doctor of Economic and Social Sciences degree and is an experienced entrepreneur with a finance and insurance startup background.
Carolin has been the CEO of Movinx GmbH since April 2021, a 50/50 joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swiss Re. The global startup is set to modernise mobility insurance through a digital business model that takes full advantage of tech and data to deliver a modern customer experience.
Before joining Movinx, Carolin was CEO and co-founder of Joonko AG, a financial aggregator enabling consumers to find the right banking and insurance products in a radically simple and data-driven way.
Prior to this she held the position of Managing Partner at finleap GmbH, a large fintech ecosystem and was previously the CEO of autohaus24 GmbH and TopTarif Internet GmbH.
Carolin started her career as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) with a focus on banking and insurance.
Christophe Vandeweghe holds a Degree in Applied Economics from KU Leuven where he was also a graduate in Additional Study Insurance and a Master of Financial and Actuarial Engineering. He completed his education achieving a MBA in Financial Services & Insurance at Vlerick Business School, University of St Gallen & HEC Montréal. Since January 2021 he is a Certified Management Accountant. Christophe began his career at ING Insurance, continuing at Deloitte before joining Ageas in October 2014. He was Chief Risk Officer(CRO) of Continental Europe and he has been an Executive Board member of Ageas Portugal since February 2018, first as CRO and as from November 2019 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with responsibility for investments, ALM, accounting, actuarial, reinsurance & planning & control. He also took up several Board mandates within Group companies.
Job Titles:
- Grimbergen Joined Ageas As Group Risk Officer on 1 January 2011
As of 1 June 2024, Emmanuel took up the function of MD Reinsurance and Investments.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Grimbergen Joined Ageas As Group Risk Officer on 1 January 2011
Filip Coremans holds a Master of Business Administration Degree in International Business Finance, a Master's degree in Actuarial Sciences and a Bachelor Degree in Applied Economics, all from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
He has been active in the Insurance industry for 30 years, his entire professional career. He joined ING Insurance Belgium in 1990 where he became Deputy Director overseeing the Save- and Investment product lines both in Insurance and in banking. In 1998, he was appointed as Corporate Controller in KBC Insurance Belgium and joined Ageas by the end of 2002.
At Ageas, Filip Coremans held various senior management positions in the Asian entities. He has been Executive Director and CFO of operations in Malaysia until 2007, was the CFO of Ageas Federal Life insurance company in India until 2009 and was then appointed Regional CFO/CRO of Ageas Asia overseeing the finance, investment, risk, and actuarial domains for Asia region.
He served as non-Executive director on the various Boards of operations in Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, China, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.
With effect from 1st July 2014 Filip joined our Group Executive Committee as Chief Risk Officer and executive director of ageas SA NV, with responsibility for Compliance, Legal, Risk, Human Resources, IT and Office Support. As of June 2019, he took up the role of Chief Development Officer with responsibility for Human Resources, Business Development and Technology development. As of November 2020, he was appointed Managing Director of Asia.
Furthermore, he serves as director on the board of Ageas Insurance International NV (Belgium).
As non-executive director, he serves today on the boards of Ageas Federal Life Insurance Co Ltd and Royal Sundaram General Insurance Co Ltd (India), Taiping Life Insurance Company Limited (China), Muang Thai Life Assurances PCL (Thailand), Muang Thai Holdings Co Ltd (Thailand) and Etiqa Insurance PL (Singapore).
Françoise Lefèvre holds a Law degree from the ULB, Free University of Brussels and was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 1981. She was also admitted as solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales from 2002 to 2021.She began her career as associate and then as partner in three different law firms. Françoise is a specialist in national and international arbitration, both ad hoc and institutional (ICC, UNICTRAL, LCIA, Cepani, NAI, etc.), as counsel and as arbitrator. She has been the worldwide litigation and arbitration head of Linklaters from 2007 to 2010, before chairing its global international arbitration practice until 2016. She has extensive experience in construction law, contract law, corporate disputes, regulatory investigations, white collar crime and banking law. As one of the leading arbitration experts in Belgium, Françoise is regularly invited to discuss her practice at universities and seminars and is author of many publications in this field.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Chief Executive Officer of AG Insurance
- Director Insurance Management Asia in Hong Kong
Hans De Cuyper holds a Master Degree in Actuarial Sciences from the University of Leuven (1993) and an Executive MBA in Financial Services from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (2004).
Hans joined Ageas group in 2004 as Director Insurance Management Asia in Hong Kong. In 2007, he moved to Malaysia as Chief Financial Officer in Etiqa Insurance & Takaful, the joint venture between Maybank and Ageas. From 2011 until 2013, he was member of the Executive Committee of Maybank, the leading Malaysian bank, and Chief Executive Officer for Etiqa.
From September 2013 until September 2015, Hans held the position of Chief Financial Officer of AG Insurance, Ageas's Belgian subsidiary.
In October 2015, Hans became Chief Executive Officer of AG Insurance and five years later he was appointed CEO of Ageas and non-independent executive member of the Board of Directors.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director Belgium
Heidi Delobelle holds a master's degree in Mathematical Sciences and Actuarial Sciences.
Heidi started her career at Ageas's Belgian subsidiary AG Insurance in 1998 where she has held various positions in Employee Benefits. She was appointed as Chief Risk Officer of AG in 2012 until 2019, when she became Managing Director of AG's Employee Benefits & Health Care business.
On 22 October 2020, Heidi Delobelle was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AG Insurance. On 1 March 2024 she joined the Ageas Executive Committee as Managing Director Belgium, while keeping her role as CEO at AGI.
Jean-Michel Chatagny has an Economics background and was Client Executive and Managing Director in the Reinsurance Globals Division of Swiss Re between 1 July 2009 and 31 August 2020, when he retired. He had been with Swiss Re for just over four decades.
Since September 2013 he led the Globals team in Zurich responsible for European based Global clients and strategy for all Life & Health Global clients based in Continental Europe.
Between September 2010 and the summer of 2013, he lived and worked in Hong Kong leading the Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing based Globals Property & Casualty and Life and Health teams which he set-up.
Prior to this he was the Managing Director in charge of Strategic Corporate Development for Asia, a function that included responsibilities for the medical insurance business.
Between 2005 and 2006, he was Chief Operating Officer for Swiss Re's Life & Health business in Asia, spanning the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, and he was also in charge of key US and European global clients on the Life & Health side.
From 1997 to 2005, he was Head of Asia and a Member of the Executive Board of the Life & Health Business Group. This appointment followed more than 10 years of hands-on experience in various Asian markets.
He also spent 10 years in Japan as Swiss Re's Life Representative at the company's Representative Office in Tokyo, leading the Life & Health development of Swiss Re in Japan, Korea and Taiwan until June 1995.
Prior to that, he spent a year with the Marketing Section for Asia Pacific in Zurich and Hong Kong, following 4 years working as a Life Underwriter.
During his career in the insurance sector, Jean-Michel led a number of successful initiatives to enable access to insurance for populations in some parts of the world with limited insurance penetration i.e. partnership in micro-finance institutions in India to provide credit related mortality cover for women wanting to work independently or setting a public-private partnership in India with government part-financing of premium to offer health insurance and set up of several other private-public partnerships in China to insure infrastructure against catastrophic risks.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director Business Development
Karolien Gielen holds a master's degree in Commercial Engineering.
Karolien started her professional career at Boston Consulting Group in 2007 as Associate-Principal. In 2018 Karolien became Partner and Managing Director at BCG and since 2022 she was Practice Area Lead Insurance for the London-Amsterdam-Brussels system.
In 2012, Karolien worked for one year, outside of BCG, for the Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Pensions.
As of 8 April 2024, Karolien has been appointed Managing Director Business Development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Remuneration Committee
- Board Member / Chairwoman of the Ageas Remuneration Committee
Katleen was CFO at Proximus until 2022 and Member of Steering Committee of Proximus (responsible for the implementation of the EU taxonomy and the issuance of a Green Bond).
Katleen combines strong financial technical skills with a good strategic view on the impact of digital on the financial services industry as well as a relevant experience at Executive Committee and Board level. She has managed many different projects at both operational and strategic levels. It also included M&A transactions as well as the take-over of Banksys/BCC by Atos Origin (now Worldline).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Partner at "a Lamot Incobel & Co
Mrs. Sonali Chandmal is currently a partner at "A Lamot Incobel & Co" an advisory firm sourcing, structuring and funding private equity opportunities in Europe, India and America.
From 1997 to 2017, Mrs. Chandmal worked at Bain & Company, a leading global strategy and management consulting firm, where she exercised respectively the functions of Management Consultant, Global Knowledge Team Leader and Senior Manager of Next-Generation Products. She worked at their San Francisco, London and Brussels offices. Prior to that, she worked in San Francisco for Robertson Stephens & Company, an investment bank specializing in high technology IPOs and mergers & acquisitions.
In 2017, Mrs. Chandmal joined the Board of Directors of Medicover AB, a leading Swedish healthcare services & diagnostics provider active primarily in Central & Eastern Europe, Germany and India. She is also on Medicover's Audit Committee and Sustainability Committee. In 2020, she joined the Board of Directors of BW LPG Ltd, the world's leading owner and operator of liquefied petroleum gas vessel carriers. From 2021, Ms. Chandmal has joined the Board of Directors of Climate Governance asbl/vzw - Chapter Zero Brussels. Chapter Zero Brussels is the EU and BeLux chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The focus is to enable board directors across BeLux and the 20 European Union countries where a national chapter does not exist yet to engage effectively in a strategic debate about the climate challenge for their businesses, and how they will contribute to achieving the EU's target of net-zero emissions. Ms Chandmal is also an active member of European Women on Boards, and Women on Board Belgium whose aims are to increase gender diversity in C-Suite and Board roles. From 2013 to 2021, Mrs. Chandmal was the Vice-Chair of Board of Trustees at the International School of Brussels.
Since 2018, Mrs. Chandmal has joined the Board of Directors of the Harvard Club of Belgium.
Mrs. Chandmal holds a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- Group Director Investor Relations
Wim Guilliams holds a Master Degree in Applied Economic Sciences from the University of Leuven (1994), a Post University Degree in Gestion des Risques Financiers from the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis Bruxelles, and an MBA in Financial Services & Insurance, AMBA-accredited.
In 2015, Wim joined Ageas as CFO of AG Insurance, Ageas's Belgian operating entity. Prior to this, Wim has built up extensive expertise over the years through various positions in banking and insurance holding several executive and Board positions within among others, KBC Group in Belgium and Eastern Europe, and ING Insurance in Belgium.
As newly appointed CFO, with effect 1 June 2023, Wim has also been proposed as a member of the Ageas Board of Directors at the General shareholders meeting of 17 May 2023.
As of 1 January 2023, Wim has been appointed Deputy CFO of Ageas.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board Member / Chairman of the Ageas Audit Committee
Xavier de Walque holds a Degree in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School, ULB. Xavier began his career as adviser to the vice-prime Minister in charge of economic, financial and tax affairs (1988 - 1991). He then worked for 10 years at Cobepa (Compagnie Benelux Participations - Paribas Group) and entered the Dexia Group where he occupied several positions between 2001 and May 2011. Since May 2011, he has been the CFO and the Member of the Executive Committee of Cobepa and has taken several Board mandates within group companies. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors and the Audit Committee of Cofinimmo. From April 2012 to April 2024, he was also a Member of the Board of AG Insurance. During that period, he joined several Board committees (Risk, Audit, …).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Corporate Governance Committee
- Board Member / Chairwoman of the Ageas Risk & Capital Committee
Yvonne Lang Ketterer holds a Master of Economics Degree from the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
She brings very relevant insurance experience to the table through her work at Zurich Insurance in Switzerland. Her most recent position within Zurich was CEO of all Life activities in Switzerland and member of the Executive Committee for Switzerland. In this role she had direct responsibility for 400 employees and had oversight of more than 1000 employees in the shared services functions (Distribution, Claims and Support). Prior to this she gained experience both in the life, non-life, retail, corporate insurance business and across various sales channels (brokers, agencies, banks and direct).
Her experience is mainly in Switzerland, but she also had exposure to Hong Kong, Japan and Dubai where she had regulatory, compliance, control and audit responsibility through her function as CEO and Member of the Board of Directors for Zurich Life Insurance Company Ltd. for more than 5 years. And as a member of the Global Life Management team she was exposed to additional other geographical markets and products.
Mrs. Lang Ketterer is holder of a Certificate in Corporate Governance from the Swiss Board School.