Ambassadors - Transparency Task Force

Dr Willi Brammertz

Dr. Brammertz obtained his PhD in Economics with a major on econometrics from the University of Zurich. His doctoral thesis discussed the elementary parts of finance which form the basis of any financial analysis.

While maintaining the foundation laid in his thesis, the concepts were continually refined and developed with a special focus on integrating statistical modelling. He co-founded early 1996 Iris ag in Zurich and applied these insights in the analytic platform for banks – riskpro™ – which has been sold to date to more than 300 banks in about forty countries worldwide.

The success of riskpro™ derived from its simple core – the idea of Contract Types – which led to an unparalleled clarity of design, consistency, transparency and completeness on the analytic level – risk management, finance and regulatory reporting. Iris was sold in 2008.

Brammertz published widely in the field and is a speaker at conferences.

Currently Brammertz works on the next logical step which is the Open Source implementation of the standard Contract Types. In this capacity he is chairman of the ACTUS User Association.

Parallel to this, he is managing director of ARIADNE, a company specialized on financial analytics especially financial planning based on statistical results. ARIADNE is built on the ACTUS standard.

He also teaches on this subject in a regular masters and PhD course at the University of Zurich/ETH Zürich.

Marcos Eguiguren

Marcos (Spain/The Netherlands) is an Economist and PhD in Business Administration.

An entrepreneur that has started companies in different industries including financial services, technology and professional services. He brings a wealth of experience including banking, consulting, management and research.

Marcos is known for his ability to lead the strategic delivery of profitable, sustainable, values-based business models. As Executive Director of the GABV Marcos is building the values-based banking movement and growing our work with members, partners, experts and policy makers to influence the banking system so that it is more transparent, ethical, robust and real-economy focused.

Marcos is also a professor of Business Administration at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

Gandy Gandidzanwa

Gandy is a Director of the Association of Professional Fund Investors (APFI). Headquartered in London, the APFI was created by, and for, its membership with the core objective of advancing investors’ interests by promoting professional standards and integrity in fund investing. The Association fosters “best practice” in fund investing by setting global standards and code of ethics whilst empowering professional fund investors to provide thought leadership on, and guidance to, national and global standards bodies and regulatory authorities.

Gandy is the current Managing Director of Conceptual Fund Managers – a South African-based manager-of-emerging-managers whose unique investment strategy blends only portfolios of disciplined, process-driven, high quality, small-to-medium-sized, specialist investment firms run by experienced entrepreneurial founders and portfolio managers.

A regular speaker at national, regional and international conferences, Gandy has held various positions in the financial services industry including serving as the Principal Executive Officer of one of the biggest umbrella funds in South Africa.

Gandy is a graduate of the Yale University School of Management (USA) Executive Programme in Advanced Investment and Risk Management. He is a member of the CFA Institute and holds the CIPM® qualification. Gandy also holds a Master’s Degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town.

Alice Merry

Alice has a decade’s experience working with the UN, charities and financial service providers to create a fairer and more inclusive financial sector.

She began her career at Lloyd’s of London, before shifting her focus to social and environmental issues within the sector. As Research Officer at the International Labour Organization’s Impact Insurance Facility, Alice worked with insurers to introduce inclusive products and change their practices. In addition, she has worked with several charities including WWF, engaging the insurance industry on environmental issues, and the UK charity Surviving Economic Abuse, leading a campaign for the insurance industry to better respond to victims of abuse.

Alice speaks English, French and Spanish and is based in Lima, Peru. She is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Executive Master in Development Policy and Practice, and holds a Diploma from the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Pascal Hogenboom

Pascal is a former CEO of Aon Hewitt in the Netherlands, Executive Board Member of Aon Group Netherlands, Executive Board Member of the Aon Hewitt EMEA Management Board and Member of the Board of Directors of the European Pension Fund “United Pensions”.

He holds 17+ years of experience in the financial services sector and 8+ years in the Military Service with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps and the Air Assault Brigade. During this period, he did tours in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The combination of his business and military experience has made him a leader with a proven track record who, under any circumstance, can quickly identify relevant risks and opportunities to lead and manage an organization or project into the next phase successfully.

In addition to many different (international) military courses, Pascal has completed his education on Bsc level in business management and has completed several Senior Executive and Advisory Board courses at Aon and Tilburg University (TIAS).

Pascal is fluent in Dutch, English and German and is a fanatical CrossFit practitioner and regularly runs obstacle runs.

Peter Kolthof

Peter has worked in the pensions industry for most of his career. In two decades he has built extensive knowledge, insight and experience in the areas of asset and risk management, covering the full breadth of the investment organisation (front, mid, back office, support services, manager selection), processes (from strategy to implementation) and asset categories.

Before joining Avida Peter was at Shell Asset Management Company, where his last role was Head of Equities. In that role he was also involved in the consolidation of Shell Pension Funds’ assets. Peter was then CFO/COO of an investment boutique for a few years. Lately, as a consultant to Pension Funds he has focused on the areas of asset and risk management.

Peter is an econometrician and tax lawyer by training, completed by executive education programs at the Harvard Business School and Nyenrode Business School. Today he is a lecturer at Nyenrode Business School.

Tomas Wijffels

Tomas Wijffels MSc. (1971) has worked as policy advisor for seven years at Pensioen Federatie (the Federation of the Dutch Pension funds). His main topics of interest are the recommendations on administrative costs and the current discussion about the future of second pillar pensions in the Netherlands.

Tomas is board member of the Dutch pension tracking service, www.mijnpensioenoverzicht. This tracking service for 1st and 2nd pillar pensions is built and maintained by a foundation of which all Dutch pension funds and insurance companies contribute to.

Before working for the Federation, Tomas was board member of the company pension fund of TNO, the Dutch Institute for Applied Sciences, where he worked as a consultant in the field of cultural heritage.

Also, Tomas is a valued member of TTF’s Team EMEA.

Eric Veldpaus

Eric Veldpaus has been at the epicentre of cost transparency throughout his career. Before his current position at the independent Institutional Benchmarking Institute he was strategist at APG where his focus was on all aspects of cost and cost transparency including relations with auditors and the Dutch Central Bank.

Prior to APG, he held senior positions at ABP, Robeco and PWC. Eric is author of several prominent publications on cost transparency, including the ‘Recommendations on Administrative Costs’ (Aanbevelingen uitvoeringskosten)’ published by the Federation of the Dutch Pension Funds; he is also a lecturer at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands. At APG he was member of the Global Advisory Committee of CEM.

In 2013 he founded the independent Institutional Benchmarking Institute together with partners Nyenrode and Novarca to further his ambitions in the field of cost reporting.

Eric holds a CA degree.

Further information about Eric, his work and organisations can be found through these links:

IBI: (http://www.institutionalbenchmarking.org/?lang=en)

Novarca: (https://www.novarca.com/).

Also, as well as being an Ambassador of the Transparency Task Force, Eric is a valued member of the TTF’s Team EMEA, Team GTI and Team PISCES.

Marlon Sahetapy

Marlon is responsible for the development and implementation of Aon’s fiduciary and advisory proposition in the Netherlands.

Marlon has 20 years of experience in institutional investment, business development, risk management and governance, working across different institutional markets and various asset classes, but in particular private markets.

He has worked with a diverse investor base ranging from pension funds and insurers to SWFs, endowments, foundations and development finance institutions. He was a Director, Product Specialist and Global Head of Business Development for the Focus Fund at Hermes Investment Management, where he played a significant role in the developing the stewardship service, the Hermes Equity Ownership Services.

Marlon was an Investment Principal at Aureos Capital, a private equity manager focused on ESG and the emerging markets and at Kempen Capital Management. As an independent consultant he led, worked or advised on various fund raising activities in the private markets, he also worked with Pensions Infrastructure Platform, APG and Commonland.

Marlon has been active at Eumedion, the Dutch Institutional Governance and Sustainability Forum, the ICGN and at the ICPM. And he is a former adviser to the Institutional Investor Roundtable, an investor initiative focused on private equity and infrastructure club deals between large institutional investors.

Edouard Bokuetenge

Xprience is a consulting business of freelancers; in addition to that role, Edouard has, for the last 6 years, been working as a Strategic Consultant for Private Equities, large and well established businesses, several mi-sized businesses and as owner of two small start-ups.

Edouard is a strategic, multicultural leader, having built a successful career as an executive in the fund industry over a period of 21 years since joining Rothschild Bank in 1998. He has extensive international experience in Securities Services, Investment Funds, Consulting both in Corporate, SME’s and Start-ups. Over this period, he worked for a variety of companies in the sector: Rothschild Bank, Euroclear, Royal Bank of Canada and the European Fund Platform Group, covering global responsibilities, being based in Luxembourg, Belgium as well as in UK.

At the Fund Platform Group he operated as Chairman where he started from zero and built over a 7-year period a “leadership voice” in the fund industry, acting as a spokesperson. This role provided ample opportunity to build relationships and to influence and persuade the widest range of stakeholders including political, business, industry bodies and various lobby groups; plus the fund industry’s media.

During his career he has created and launched new products and developed new businesses including his own. He is a continuous student and is passionate about Strategy, Digitalization, Innovation, Data Science and IA.

Throughout Edouard’s career he has taken on numerous leadership roles because of his pragmatic approach and team-spirited attitude. He is diplomatic and sensitive but with goals and accomplishments in mind; always seeking to drive change.