FESE Convention 2023 - Watch the Panels

Friedrich von Heusinger is the director of the Representation of the State of Hessen to the EU since 2005. He became the first employee in the newly formed Europe department of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Munich and was able to help set up the department. In 1991, he moved to the Bavarian representation in Brussels. Until 2001, he was the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs’ mirror officer at the EU. After that, he was deputy head of the representation for four years.

He studied law at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.

Petr Koblic began his career in investment banking in 1993. He served at the middle management level and later top management level in number of domestic and international investment banks.

Peter was elected Chairman and CEO of Prague Stock Exchange in September 2004. He is also Chairman of the Central Securities Depository Prague and Power Exchange Central Europe. At group level he is Member of the Board of Vienna Stock Exchange. In 2018, Peter was elected President of FESE, and in 2019, was selected as a member of the High Level Forum on the Capital Markets Union.

During his career, Petr has also been a member of the Board of the Czech Broker Dealer Association, President of Ljubljana Stock Exchange, Member of the Board of Budapest Stock Exchange, and Chairman of the Czech Investor Compensation Fund.

Rodrigo Buenaventura is serving as Chair of CNMV since 2020. He is also chairing the ESMA Markets Standing Committee and the IOSCO Sustainable Finance Task Force since December 2022.

From 2017 to 2020 he was Director General for Markets at the CNMV, leading supervision and policy on secondary markets, primary markets (IPOs, prospectuses and takeovers), financial reporting, corporate governance and market abuse investigations.

From 2011 to 2017 he was the first Head of Markets of the then-newly-created ESMA. He was in charge of policy on post-trading, secondary markets, market data and market conduct (short selling and market abuse). During this period, he contributed to the build-up of the organisation and led the team that undertook the drafting and consultation of technical standards under many EU regulations enacted after the
financial crisis: EMIR, MiFID II, CSDR, Short Selling, Market Abuse, Benchmarks and SFTR.

From 2005 to 2011 he was, subsequently, Head of International and Head of Secondary Markets at CNMV. In this last position, he was in charge of supervision and regulation of market abuse, trading and post-trading infrastructures and trading and settlement rules.
From 1993 to 2004 he developed a career as a financial consultant at a leading private Spanish consulting company (AFI), where he became a partner of the firm and a member of the executive committee, specialising in asset and liability management, securities issuance, debt management, rating advice and public finance.

He graduated in Economics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1991 and spent one year in Hong Kong in 1992 with an ICEX scholarship.

Ugo Bassi is Director of Financial Markets at FISMA, the European Commission's Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union since 2012.

Lawyer by profession, Ugo Bassi started his career as a ‘référendaire’ at the European Court of Justice before joining the European Commission. In the last years, he held several management positions and was responsible for various post-crisis measures in the area of financial services and markets, namely Post-trade, Securities, Asset Management, Audit, Accounting, and Credit Rating Agencies.

He launched the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, including the Sustainable Finance component and secured the adoption of many legislative proposals in this context. The most recent ones, currently under negotiations, are the proposal to establish a European Single Access Point (ESAP), the proposal for a Regulation on European green bonds (EuGB), the proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the proposal to review the European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs), the proposal to review the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and the proposal to review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

He represents the European Commission in the Board of Supervisors of ESMA and in many other high-level fora and events worldwide, thus contributing to the international work of the Commission in the area.

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 the 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.

Ugo Bassi is Director of Financial Markets at FISMA, the European Commission's Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union since 2012.

Lawyer by profession, Ugo Bassi started his career as a ‘référendaire’ at the European Court of Justice before joining the European Commission. In the last years, he held several management positions and was responsible for various post-crisis measures in the area of financial services and markets, namely Post-trade, Securities, Asset Management, Audit, Accounting, and Credit Rating Agencies.

He launched the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project, including the Sustainable Finance component and secured the adoption of many legislative proposals in this context. The most recent ones, currently under negotiations, are the proposal to establish a European Single Access Point (ESAP), the proposal for a Regulation on European green bonds (EuGB), the proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the proposal to review the European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs), the proposal to review the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and the proposal to review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

He represents the European Commission in the Board of Supervisors of ESMA and in many other high-level fora and events worldwide, thus contributing to the international work of the Commission in the area.

Nicola Beer is Vice-President and Member of the European Parliament. She serves as special envoy on combatting religious discrimination and is chair of the working group on combating antisemitism.
Furthermore, Ms Beer is deputy federal chairperson of the Free Democratic Party Germany. From 2017 - 2019 she was Member of the Deutsche Bundestag (national german Parliament) and Secretary General of her party from 2013 to 2019.

Previously, Nicola Beer served as a member of the Hessian State Parliament (1999-2009, 2014-2017). From 2012 to 2014, Ms Beer was Hessian Minister for Education and from 2009 to 2012 State Secretary for European Affairs in the Hessian State Ministry of Justice, Integration and European Affairs. From 2003 to 2008 Ms Beer was Parliamentary Director of the Free Democratic Group in Hessian Parliament and Deputy Chair of the Free Democratic Group from 2008 to 2009. Prior to joining the state legislature, Beer was City Councilor (1997-1999) and Deputy City Council Chairwoman in Frankfurt am Main (1999). Nicola Beer joined the FDP Party in 1991; her Constituency is Frankfurt am Main.

Nicola Beer is an independent lawyer. After completing a bilingual German-French High School diploma, she studied law at the Goethe University Frankfurt and graduated as bank clerk.

Thomas Book is a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG, responsible for Trading & Clearing.

A pioneer in electronic trading, he joined Deutsche Börse Group in 1995 as a member of the team that rolled out Deutsche Terminbörse’s remote membership concept across Europe and the US, gaining deep insights into the impact of innovation and technology in the exchange industry. Book was also a member of the project team that built Eurex, the first cross-border exchange merger of its kind. In 2001, he rounded off his profound industry knowledge with his Ph. D. thesis Electronic Exchange Trading and Global Markets”. As a member of the Executive Board of Eurex and Eurex Clearing, Book subsequently shaped Deutsche Börse’s trading and clearing business for many years.

From 2007 to 2016, he was responsible for the clearing business of Eurex, expanding the value proposition following the 2008 financial crisis. In 2016, he took responsibility for trading at Eurex as its CEO, before being appointed to the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse in 2018.

He is responsible for the Trading & Clearing division, which includes Cash Market, Financial Derivatives, Foreign Exchange, Commodities and Market Data.

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 the 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.

Since October 2022, Jean-Paul Servais is the chairman of the board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). IOSCO is the membership organization composed of the world’s financial securities and markets regulators involved in the supervision of 95 % of the financial sector at international level. He is also the Chairman of the IOSCO European Regional Committee and he served three successive terms as Vice-Chair of the IOSCO board between 2016 and 2022 until he was elected as IOSCO board chair.

Between 2017 and 2023, Mr. Servais chaired the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board, which consists of global financial regulators and whose main objective is to provide oversight to the IFRS Foundation. In parallel, he was the co-chair of the Monitoring Group (2021-2023), a group of international financial institutions and regulatory bodies committed to advancing the public interest in areas related to international audit standard setting and audit quality. Within IOSCO, Jean-Paul also led the SPAC network, which successfully delivered a final report in May 2023.

Besides his international responsibilities, Mr Servais is the Chairman of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA). In this capacity, he is a board member of other international supervisory bodies for the financial sector such as the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). Besides, he sits on a number of supervisory colleges that coordinate the (cross-border) supervision of financial institutions and infrastructures.

Through these experiences Jean-Paul has accrued a unique blend of supervisory expertise and regulatory acumen as it relates to international financial services. Jean-Paul is known for his commitment towards investor protection. To this end, he has successfully led initiatives to promote the importance of financial education. Beyond his thorough understanding on the functioning of traditional financial services and markets, Jean-Paul is an engaged and influential figure on sustainable finance and digital regulatory agendas.

Jean-Paul teaches at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, University of Brussels), where he is part-time professor in International Business Law and in the specialised Master in Tax Law. He is author or co-author of more than 400 contributions, mostly engaging on European and international systems of financial supervision and regulation issues.

Rainer Riess is Director General of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) and an independent advisor to exchanges and financial services companies with more than 30 years of experience in the global exchange industry. He is also Vice Chair of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG) which provides ESMA with opinions and advice on its policy work.

For many years, he served as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was responsible for the cash market business of Deutsche Börse AG. During his career at Deutsche Börse, he created and managed markets, drove changes in European corporate governance and accounting practice, financial market regulation and supervision of market player. Major initiatives include running the cash market in a competitive MiFiD environment and financial market crises, the creation of DTB Deutsche Terminbörse / Eurex, developing European primary markets (Neuer Markt, indices, corporate governance and regulation), the launch of the Xetra electronic trading system and the CCP as well as the creation of the European ETF and structured products markets.

He holds a Master in Economics from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and an MBA from the University of Miami (Fulbright Scholar).

Christoph Boschan has been CEO of the Vienna and Prague exchange group since September 2016. Over the past twenty years, he has worked for various stock exchanges, his last positions being joint CEO of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange and member of the board of directors of Euwax.

The trained securities trader previously worked for Equiduct-Trading London, Börse Berlin and Tradegate.

Joao Rainho is Senior Market Data Officer at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. He handles LuxSE Market Data Commercials, Licensing and Technical solutions. Joao has been in the current position, after having worked 10 years in a fund services company, working with Regulatory reporting and managing the teams publishing Fund data to Data Vendors.

He has a European Studies degree from Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.

Niels Tomm is the acting spokesperson for the JV of fourteen European exchanges aiming to provide a consolidated tape for European capital markets. Niels has been with Deutsche Börse for more than 15 years and worked in various positions. He is Head of Communications Trading & Clearing as well as Stakeholder Management and Berlin HUB. Furthermore, he is the Co-CEO of the China Europe International Exchange AG.

Niels Tomm holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from Indiana University (Bloomington).

Oliver has been Managing Director of Boerse Stuttgart Digital Holding GmbH and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Boerse Stuttgart Group since 1 June 2021.
Oliver brings many years of experience in IT and product development within the financial industry. In 2013, he founded the robo-advisor vaamo and led the company as Co-CEO until its merger with Moneyfarm. There, as Chief Product Officer, he was subsequently responsible for product strategy and implementation. Until 2013, he was a management consultant at McKinsey.

Oliver studied business administration with a focus on finance and marketing at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, where he completed his doctorate in banking and finance on current issues facing municipal savings banks and cooperative banks with regard to mergers, efficiency and policy.

Anthony Attia is Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade. In this capacity, he oversees Euronext’s Equity, Debt and Fund listing franchise and the Corporate Services business, as well as Clearing, Custody and Settlement activities at Group level. This includes direct responsibility for Euronext Securities regrouping four European CSDs and Euronext Clearing, the Italian Clearing House.

Prior to that, Mr Attia also served as Chairman and CEO of Euronext Paris from 2014 to 2021. In addition, he has led the successful development of Euronext’s Optiq® trading platform from
2017 to 2019.

From 2009 to 2013, based in New York, he served as Senior Vice-President and Chief of Staff at NYSE Euronext. In 2004, he was appointed as Executive Director, Head of Operations for Euronext. At the creation of Euronext in 2000, he was the Program Director for the integration of the French, Belgian and Dutch exchanges. Mr Attia began his career in the Paris stock Exchange in 1997.

Mr Attia is a member of the Board of Euronext Clearing and Euronext Dublin and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elite Spa. He is also the Vice-President of FESE, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. He also served on the Boards of Euroclear Holding and LCH SA.

In 2020, he was recognised by Business Insider as one of 100 people transforming business, driving change and innovation in their companies and across industries. He holds an Engineering degree in computer science, applied mathematics and finance.

Head of Equity, Fixed Income and Market Data at Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME). Member of the Six Group Markets Management Committee.
Member of the Boards of MEFF, BME Renta Fija, Sociedad de Bolsas and the Stock Exchanges of Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia and Barcelona, and Member of the CNMV Advisory Committee.

She holds a Master in Applied Finance by Analistas Financieros Internacionales (AFI) and Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Fernando Alvarez-Cienfuegos is Financial and Economic Counsellor at the Spanish Permanent Representation.

He worked from 2012 to 2021 at the Securities Markets and Financial Markets Regulation Unit of the Spanish Public Treasury, where he served as Spanish delegate to the Council’s Working Party on Financial Services and to the OECD Corporate Governance Committee.

He is also an administrator at the European Commission’s Directorate General for financial stability, financial services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA). Before that, he worked as a Lawyer at the Corporate Finance and Litigation practice at Uria Menendez. From 2020 to 2022 Alvarez-Cienfuegos was also a part-time Teaching Fellow in EU Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

A Spanish national, he holds a joint master’s degree in Law and Political Science from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a Mid-Career Master's in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School.

Anthony Attia is Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade. In this capacity, he oversees Euronext’s Equity, Debt and Fund listing franchise and the Corporate Services business, as well as Clearing, Custody and Settlement activities at Group level. This includes direct responsibility for Euronext Securities regrouping four European CSDs and Euronext Clearing, the Italian Clearing House.

Prior to that, Mr Attia also served as Chairman and CEO of Euronext Paris from 2014 to 2021. In addition, he has led the successful development of Euronext’s Optiq® trading platform from
2017 to 2019.

From 2009 to 2013, based in New York, he served as Senior Vice-President and Chief of Staff at NYSE Euronext. In 2004, he was appointed as Executive Director, Head of Operations for Euronext. At the creation of Euronext in 2000, he was the Program Director for the integration of the French, Belgian and Dutch exchanges. Mr Attia began his career in the Paris stock Exchange in 1997.

Mr Attia is a member of the Board of Euronext Clearing and Euronext Dublin and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elite Spa. He is also the Vice-President of FESE, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. He also served on the Boards of Euroclear Holding and LCH SA.

In 2020, he was recognised by Business Insider as one of 100 people transforming business, driving change and innovation in their companies and across industries. He holds an Engineering degree in computer science, applied mathematics and finance.

Tatyana Panova is the Head of the Capital Markets Union Unit in DG FISMA. Prior to this, Tatyana headed another unit in DG FISMA and served in the private office of Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis where she was responsible for Capital Markets Union, securities markets, asset management, insurance, free movement of capital and competition. Before joining the Cabinet, Tatyana was a Deputy Head of the Securities Unit in DG FISMA.

In her previous jobs, Tatyana coordinated the preparation of ECOFIN, COREPER II and Economic and Financial Committee in DG MARKT and managed aviation anti-trust cases in DG COMP.

Tatyana is a trained economist with specialisation in financial services.

Alfred Sant studied physics and maths at the University of Malta, diplomacy at the Institut International d’Administration Publique (now amalgamated with the ENA) in Paris, and business administration at Boston and Harvard Universities. He worked as a diplomat at Malta’s Mission to the then EEC in Brussels (1970 - 1975), as executive deputy chairman of the Malta Development Corporation (now Malta Enterprise) during the late seventies/early eighties, as a management consultant in between and later.

He was chairman of the Labour Party’s information department (1982 – 1984), President of the Party (1984 - 1988), a Labour M.P. (1987 – 2013), Labour Leader and Leader of the Opposition (1992 -2008) and Prime Minister (1996 – 1998). Over the years Sant wrote plays for the theatre, radio and TV, as well as novels and short stories in the Maltese language; was editor of three magazines and for thirteen years a correspondent of the Economist Intelligence Unit; and he wrote extensively in English and Maltese for the political and economic press.

Alfred Sant was elected Member of the European Parliament in May 2014 and again in May 2019

After graduating from Worcester College, Oxford in 1974 in politics, economics and philosophy (PPE), David worked for nearly 34 years in the European Commission. He held a variety of posts including responsibility for oil and gas data in the Statistical Office, Luxembourg (1977-1981) during the second oil crisis; energy policy coordination and modelling in the Directorate General for Energy, Brussels (1982-1987); and industrial trade policy negotiations during the Uruguay multilateral trade round (1987-1989).
From 1989-1992 he was a member of President Delors' "Think Tank" where he worked on industrial policy and wrote the first Commission document on sustainable development. In this period he co-authored a book with Professor Alexis Jacquemin on the post-1992 EU political and economic agenda called "Shaping factors, shaping actors".

From 1993-1994 he was a member of Sir Leon Brittan’s Cabinet and worked on various aspects of trade and industrial policy, including completion of the Uruguay Round in 1994. In 1995 he became an Adviser to President Jacques Santer in his Cabinet – covering a wide range of financial, industrial, trade and foreign policy briefs. Subsequently he became first Director, then Deputy Director-General for securities and financial markets, then for all financial services policy in DG Internal Market and Services. He helped design and drive forward the Financial Services Action Plans to integrate the EU's capital and financial services markets. He was the rapporteur for both the Lamfalussy (2000/1) and De LaRosière Committees (2008/9), chaired the Securities and Banking Committees and represented the Commission in the Financial Services Committee and in various FSB/G20 fora.

He was the EU Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford until July 2011 and was a Member of the European Commission's Task force on Greece until the end of January 2012. After a four-year term as Secretary General of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), David is now the Chairman of Eurofi and a partner at Flint-Global in London.

Currently, he is a public interest Board Member of the BSE, India and a Member of the Global Advisory Board of Finance.

Alexandra Jour-Schroeder is Deputy Director General of the European Commission´s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union since March 2021. In her function, Alexandra Jour-Schroeder supervises and monitors the policies of the Directorate General.

Alexandra Jour-Schroeder is a graduate in law. Following initial assignments in the German federal government, she started working for the European Commission in 1996, holding several positions in competition, enterprise and industry policies as well as justice. From 1998 to 2007, she was Member of Cabinet for the Commissioners responsible for regional policy and justice and home affairs and for the Vice-President for enterprise and industry. Since 2017, she has been the Director for Criminal Justice in the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, working inter alia on the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor´s Office and Anti-Money Laundering policies. From 2018 to 2021, she was also overseeing consumer policies as Acting Deputy Director General in DG Justice and Consumers.

DSW is the leading shareholder association in Germany with more than 30.000 members, mainly private investors. She is specialised in international Corporate Governance, sustainability, and shareholders’ rights.

Jella is an attorney having studied in France, Switzerland and the U.S.A. (Master of Law).

Currently she is president of Better Finance in Brussels, the leading European Organisation for investors’ association. She is also member of the CFSC Consultative Working Group at ESMA in Paris.
Besides Jella Benner-Heinacher is member of the German Stock Exchange Expert Committee. She sits on the consumer panel of the BaFin (German Financial Authority). Jella also holds several board mandates at German stock corporations such as K + S.

Marcel Haag studied law at the universities of Freiburg, Boon, Strasbourg and at the EUI in Florence and qualified as a judge in Düsseldorf.

After a short stint in business, he joined the European Commission and worked in different Commission services. Until the summer of 2020 Mr Haag served as a Director for policy coordination in the Secretariat-General of the Commission.

He is currently Director for Horizontal policies at the Directorate-General for Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

Ondřej is a Czech Member of the European Parliament sitting in the Renew Europe Political Group. He is a member of the ECON Committee, and is the Chairman of the Working Group for Access to Finance for SMEs. He also sits on two further committees - the TRAN committee and the LIBE committee. His portfolio extends from economic and monetary affairs and transport and tourism, to border management, research and the practical use of new technologies, for example those based on artificial intelligence, and broader access and use of digital finance for businesses and consumers.

Ondřej has been the Renew Europe spokesperson and the Group’s lead negotiator on the ECON Committee on the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and the Transfer of Funds Regulation. He was also a Rapporteur on Digital Markets Act in the LIBE committee. He is currently working on several files across his committees, including energy taxation and the Social Climate Fund.

Ondřej studied international trade, international politics and diplomacy at the University of Economics in Prague and later completed an international program in public administration, regional development and EU programmes at the prestigious school for civil servants, the École nationale d'administration (ENA), in Strasbourg and Paris.

Ondřej’s career to date has been dedicated to public service, primarily in various roles within the Czech civil service, but also in European public administration specifically, at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office of the Government, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ottawa, the Czech Ministry of Defence and the European Parliament.

Between 2003 and 2010 he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague in the Economic Relations department and as Commercial Counselor at the Embassy of the Czech Republic to Canada in Ottawa.

In the years 2007 - 2009 Ondřej worked in the Office of the Government where he dealt with security, transport and coordination with the ministries during the Czech Presidency to the EU. Since 2010 he was the Head of Cabinet of the First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic. After he was representing the Czech Republic at the European Defence Agency.

From May 2013 until June 2019 he has served as Senior Adviser in the European Parliament and as Parliamentary Assistant.

Bjørn Sibbern is President, European Trading Services. In this role, he works closely across all of Nasdaq’s European Markets teams to deepen the relationships between Nasdaq and institutional and main street investors, broker dealers and regulators in the region.

With over a decade of experience at Nasdaq, Bjørn has emerged as an influential leader within Nasdaq and the broader industry. Prior to his current role as President, European Trading Services, he was Executive Vice President for Global Information Services (GIS), based in New York City. He has also previously led Nasdaq’s Global Commodities business, while also serving as President of the Nasdaq Copenhagen Exchange.

In an earlier role, Bjørn managed the company’s Nordic Cash Equities and Derivatives Markets. Bjørn’s proven track record in business-building and his ability to foster and grow valuable client relationships positions Nasdaq to further evolve its European business through best-in-class industry partnership and collaboration, product development, and geographic expansion to deliver greater value for all clients.

Sibbern brings experience from both sides of the transaction business as he has held leading positions at Nordic broker firms and covered diverse leading positions at the Nordic exchanges.

Before joining the company, Sibbern was Head of Trading at Stocknet Norway and CEO at E*TRADE Bank Denmark. While President of the Nasdaq Copenhagen exchange, Sibbern also served on the board of the Committee for Corporate Governance under the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

Sibbern holds an Executive MBA, a Diploma in Business Administration and an MSc in Economics & Business Administration and Law from Copenhagen Business School.

Rosa Armesto is Deputy Director General of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE). She is responsible for coordinating all regulatory policy campaigns and strengthening FESE’s positioning on the key issues and priorities for exchanges in Europe.

Rosa has more than 15 years of professional experience in EU affairs for the financial sector. In her earlier career, she was Head of Public and Regulatory Affairs at FESE and held a number of different responsibilities, including the Economics and Statistics Committee.

Prior to re-joining FESE, she spent 4 years as a Member of the Management Team and Head of Public Affairs and Communications of Insurance Europe, in charge of interest representation for the European insurance sector. She has worked in Brussels since 2007, coming from Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Commission) in Luxembourg.

Rosa is a Spanish national and holds a Master’s degree in Economics (major in Econometrics) from the University of Zaragoza (ES) & University of Groningen (NL), a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the University of Zaragoza (ES), and a professional degree in piano from Teruel Conservatory (ES). She speaks English, French and Spanish.

Rainer Riess is Director General of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) and an independent advisor to exchanges and financial services companies with more than 30 years of experience in the global exchange industry. He is also Vice Chair of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG) which provides ESMA with opinions and advice on its policy work.

For many years, he served as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and was responsible for the cash market business of Deutsche Börse AG. During his career at Deutsche Börse, he created and managed markets, drove changes in European corporate governance and accounting practice, financial market regulation and supervision of market player. Major initiatives include running the cash market in a competitive MiFiD environment and financial market crises, the creation of DTB Deutsche Terminbörse / Eurex, developing European primary markets (Neuer Markt, indices, corporate governance and regulation), the launch of the Xetra electronic trading system and the CCP as well as the creation of the European ETF and structured products markets.

He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the English Theatre Frankfurt and several charitable organisations. He holds a Master in Economics from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and an MBA from the University of Miami (Fulbright Scholar).

As an international exchange organisation and innovative market infrastructure provider, Deutsche Börse Group ensures capital markets that are transparent, reliable and stable. With its wide range of products, services and technologies, the Group organises safe and efficient markets for sustainable economies.

Its business areas cover the entire financial market transaction process chain. This includes the provision of indices, data and analytical solutions as well as admission, trading and clearing. Additionally, it comprises services for funds, the settlement and custody of financial instruments as well as the management of collateral and liquidity. As a technology company, the Group develops state-of-the-art IT solutions and offers IT systems all over the world.

With more than 11,000 employees, the Group has its headquarters in the financial centre of Frankfurt/Rhine-Main, as well as a strong global presence in locations such as Luxembourg, Prague, Cork, London, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney.

Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is a global technology company serving capital markets and other industries. Our diverse offering of data, analytics, software and services enables clients to optimize and execute their business vision with confidence. To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, on Twitter @Nasdaq, or at www.nasdaq.com.

Prague Stock Exchange (PSE) is the largest and oldest organizer of the securities market in the Czech Republic. In addition to the Exchange, the most important member in the PX Group is Central Securities Depository Prague (CSD Prague) which has a dominant position in the area of settlement of securities trades on the Czech capital market. PX Group also owns stake in POWER EXCHANGE CENTRAL EUROPE (PXE) which offers power and gas trading in the CEE and Balkans.

PSE closely cooperates with Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Börse). At the international level, this cooperation enables joint measures to increase the visibility of both markets and to acquire professional market participants such as data vendors and index licensees, institutional investors and trading participants.

Boerse Stuttgart Group is the sixth largest exchange group in Europe with strategic pillars in the capital markets business as well as in the digital & crypto business.

In the capital markets business, Boerse Stuttgart Group has a strong market position: It operates exchanges in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland as well as cats as a European off-exchange network. In trading with securitized derivatives, Boerse Stuttgart is the European market leader. In addition, the Group also includes EUWAX AG, a broker that is active on international exchanges.

As a true pioneer, Boerse Stuttgart Group has built the largest digital and crypto business of the European exchange groups with Boerse Stuttgart Digital. With brokerage, trading and custody solutions for institutional clients and its retail platform BISON, Boerse Stuttgart Digital provides reliable, regulated and transparent access to the crypto space.

Boerse Stuttgart Group has more than 700 employees in hubs in Stuttgart, Berlin, Stockholm, Zurich, and Ljubljana.

Hessen makes its voice heard in Europe: The Representation of the State of Hessen to the European Union in Rue Montoyer 21 at the heart of the European Quarter in Brussels sees itself as a meeting place.

More than two-thirds of the political decisions that affect people’s everyday lives in Hessen are taken in Brussels. Therefore it is of crucial importance for Hessen to reach out to decision-makers. It serves as a linchpin between itself as a regional representation and the decision-makers at the European level. One unique feature is that the Representation operates from the Multiple Regions Building, which brings together the regions of Hessen, Nouvelle Aquitaine (France), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), and Wielkopolska (Poland) under one roof. The series of events and presentations range from talks on specialist subjects, panel debates and expert discussions, to lecture presentations. Spacious event venues and conference rooms allow the Representation to stage 1200 small and large events each year.

The Representation also acts as a contact point for individuals, local authorities, companies, trade unions, associations, as well as research institutions. Events are held by the Representation alone or in collaboration with partners.