Independent Director in Luxembourg

My board career began in 2014 with a family-controlled investment company. Over the following years the portfolio has grown to cover most of the segments that make up the Luxembourg economy: a cooperative bank and a private bank, the Luxembourg-based entities of an international infrastructure fund manager, the Luxembourg subsidiaries of a listed healthcare real estate group, the Luxembourg company of a real estate private equity manager, a charitable foundation, a services company in the health sector, and several family holdings.

In most of these mandates I act as a non-executive or independent director; in some I also sit on the advisory board or serve as manager of a Luxembourg Sàrl. Along the way I have gathered experience in audit, risk and nomination committees.

What I try to bring to each board is fairly consistent. I prepare thoroughly. I read the numbers behind the numbers and the words behind the words. I form my own view independently of management and of the shareholders who appointed me, and I say what I think – diplomatically, but clearly. And I work at building consensus, because a board decision only creates value when it is genuinely carried by the whole table.

The pages on my banking board experience, investment fund board experience, family holding directorships and corporate governance experience go into more detail on each area.

I am a non-executive director and member of the advisory board of Banque Raiffeisen, Luxembourg's cooperative bank, whose profit remains within the bank rather than being distributed to shareholders. I also serve as a non-executive director of BEMO Europe – Banque Privée, a Luxembourg private bank specialising in wealth management, discretionary portfolio management and tailored financing solutions for an international clientele of entrepreneurs, families and institutional partners.

These mandates rest on a long relationship with the banking sector. I began my career in 1995 at Banque Générale, where I worked in asset management, in the office of the secretary general and in asset-liability management before heading the corporate finance department. In my advisory career I have since worked with banks on some of their most consequential decisions: the restructuring of a €1bn loan portfolio at Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg on behalf of its interbank creditors during the 2008 crisis, the sale of the card payment cooperative Cetrel, the tender through which Banque Raiffeisen took over Post Luxembourg's CCP client base, and the two-year governance simplification in which Banque Raiffeisen absorbed its shareholder Caisses.

Luxembourg is one of the world's leading fund domiciles, and independent directors play a central role in the governance of fund vehicles, general partners and management companies. I serve as an independent director in several Luxembourg-based managing limited partner entities of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Founded in 2012, CIP is the world's largest dedicated fund manager within greenfield energy investments and a global leader in offshore wind; as of early 2025 it has raised approximately EUR 32 billion from more than 180 international institutional investors, with projects in more than 30 countries.

I am also a non-executive director and manager of Henderson Park Advisors (Luxembourg) Sàrl, the Luxembourg company of a London-headquartered private equity real estate manager focused on Western European capital and gateway cities, and a director of seven Luxembourg entities of Aedifica, the listed Belgian healthcare real estate group, which came into the group through its merger with Cofinimmo.

My contribution to these boards draws on the valuation, financial modelling and due diligence work that has occupied most of my professional life. On the public side, I advised Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy on the set-up and launch of the Digital Fund, aimed at strengthening the country's ICT start-up ecosystem.

My first board seat was in a family-controlled investment company, and I have since been a director of several holding companies managing family wealth. In most of them I also advise on the underlying investments through Value Associates, my consulting company – typically on M&A, investment due diligence and financial modelling.

Families bring a particular set of governance questions to the table: how to separate ownership from management, how to take decisions across generations, and how to keep a group of relatives aligned around an investment strategy. Family governance is one of the services Value Associates has provided to entrepreneurs and wealthy families since 2011.

Two projects illustrate the type of situation I am used to. From 2011 to 2019 I provided financial modelling and project management assistance on a complex £100m property redevelopment near Trafalgar Square in London, and from 2014 to 2020 I sat on the board of the property holding company that carried out and financed it. In another case I advised the private reference shareholder of a €200 million energy project in buying back the shares of his co-investor in a climate of dispute, restructuring the financing with the development banks involved and negotiating the entry of a new investment partner.

Governance is not a checklist; it is a competitive advantage. A board that merely supervises adds little. A board that challenges strategy, understands the numbers, anticipates risks and takes clear decisions is one of the most valuable assets a company can have.

Four strengths shape my contribution. Strategy: I enjoy thinking ahead and out of the box, anticipating a variety of scenarios and defining responses to opportunities and adversities. Numbers: valuation, financial modelling and financial analysis, studied in depth at HEC Paris and refreshed ever since. Words: summarising complex matters in clear, compelling terms that a board can endorse and act upon. Values: integrity and personal values are non-negotiable at board level, and ethics and sustainability have been part of my culture long before they became buzzwords.

My engineering training and financial background let me challenge business plans, valuations and strategies constructively – asking the questions that management teams respect rather than resent. The way I understand and practise corporate governance in Luxembourg is described on a separate page.

I started at Banque Générale in 1995 in asset management, moved to the office of the secretary general – where I got to know every layer of the bank and learned corporate communication – then worked in asset-liability management before heading the corporate finance department.

In 2001 I joined Deloitte Luxembourg as a director and was appointed partner in 2002. Until 2010 I was in charge of corporate finance, providing M&A, capital raising, due diligence and financial modelling services, as well as strategic advice, to institutional and private clients from Luxembourg and abroad.

Since 2011 I have owned Value Associates SA, which serves entrepreneurs and wealthy families, institutional clients and the Luxembourg government. Its services focus on strategy, valuation, M&A assistance, family governance, financial modelling, and process analysis and optimisation. My board mandates have developed alongside this activity since 2014.

I studied industrial engineering at ETH Zurich over five and a half years, graduating in 1993, and followed this with a one-year Master in International Finance at HEC Paris in 1994, with in-depth studies of corporate and market finance.

In 2020 I completed INSEAD's International Directors Programme (IDP) in Fontainebleau, one of the most reputable certifications for professional board directors. I work in English, French and German, write in all three, and speak Luxembourgish.