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Ecoda Policy

Press

Juan alvarez-vijande

Chairman

Juan Álvarez-Vijande has more than 16 years of experience in boardroom management. Boardroom experience developed as Non-Executive Director (as independent director among others), as Executive Director, advisor to Boards on Good Corporate Governance Practices as well as Advisory Board member. Boardroom experience gained among others sectors in Telecommunications, Consulting, Internet, Defence/Space, Franchise, Energy and others. Among other companies are Amper Group, Cable and Wireless SA, Baytree International , Telefonica and Alcatel Space affiliates. Currently and from 2003 he is IC-A (Spanish Board Director Association) Executive Director, IC-A Council member and IC-A Executive Management Board President. In addition to IC-A activities, he is independent advisor to Venture Capital, as well as advising to Boards of Directors and Senior Management on Corporate Governance Best Practices & Business Strategy in different business sectors.

As Senior Executive for more than 15 years, he served as CEO/MD/CD in multinational companies and affiliates. Previously, in Cable and Wireless Group (UK), he was Cable & Wireless CEO for Spain from 1991 to 1998 and European Business Development Senior team member.

Prior to C&W, he successfully served 3 years as Managing Director of a joint venture of Telefonica and France Telecom Spanish affiliates and held senior positions in Wang Labs and National Semiconductor in marketing, sales and general management.

Miles Templeman

Former Chairman, Honorary President, Director

IoD Director General, Miles Templeman began his career as a marketing specialist and gained his pedigree leading such major consumer brands as Daz, Ribena, Lucozade and then Levi's jeans. He then moved to general management and became Managing Director of Threshers and then the Whitbread Beer Company.
He had great success in building those companies, especially with the growth of such brands as Boddingtons and Stella Artois .
He then had a series of non-executive directorships and consultancy roles including Royal Mail, Ben Sherman and Accenture before becoming Chief Executive of Bulmers, which was eventually successfully sold to Scottish & Newcastle.
Alongside his IoD role, Miles is non-executive Chairman of Shepherd Neame, the Kentish family brewer; a non-executive director of Melrose PLC, the buy-out specialist and a board member of Young Enterprise and Enterprise Insight.

Pierre Klees

Former Chairman, Honorary President, Director

Pierre Klees is a civil engineer in electricity and mechanics, from Université Libre de Bruxelles, graduated in Business Administration.

He is Chairman of Vinçotte Group, Belgian Post SA and Alcatel-Etca. He has a series of directorships including Trasys, Alstom ACEC Energie, MCM, Proviron and Airports Council International Europe.
He attended the Brussels Internationial Airport as Chief Executive Officer, then as Executive Chairman and currently as Honorary Chairman and CEO.
He used to be General Manager and Director of “Union minière” and CEO of ACEC. He is involved in academic field as Chairman in different structures such as “Comité de l’académie pour les applications de la science”, “Royal Belgian academy council for applied sciences” and “Impact Cooremans. He is honorary Professor at the ULB.

Daniel LebEgue

Former Chairman, Honorary President, Director

Daniel Lebègue is graduated from the "Institut d'Etudes Politiques" of Lyon and from the "Ecole Nationale d'Administration". He started his career in 1969 at the Direction of the Treasury, French Ministry of Economy and Finance. From 1974 to 1976, Daniel Lebègue was the Financial Attaché to the French Embassy in Japan. Back to the Direction of Treasury, he occupied successively the functions of Head of the Balance of Payments office and of Head of Treasury Office at the Treasury.

In 1981, he was promoted as the Technical Adviser to the Prime Minister's Cabinet in charge of the economic and financial affairs. He becomes the Assistant Director of the Treasury in 1983, then Director of the Treasury from 1984 to 1987. In 1987, he attends the "Banque Nationale de Paris" as Chief Executive Officer, then as Vice chairman. From 1998 to 2002, Daniel Lebègue was the Chief Executive Officer of the "Caisse des Dépots et Consignations".

Since 2003, he is non executive director of Alcatel, Crédit Agricole SA, Technip, Scor and he is member of the Supervisory Board of Areva. Moreover, he is also Chairman of the Board of the "Institut du développement durable et des Relations Internationales", Chairman of the Board of the French section of "Transparency International" and Co-chairman of Eurofi.

Since July 2003, he is at the head of the Institut Français des Administrateurs (IFA), a French professional association of Directors.

Irena prijovic

Director

Irena Prijovic finished her studies at the Faculty of Economics at Ljubljana University in 1993 and started a career as consultant on privatization projects at the Slovene Institute of Management. Later she worked in the Technology Development Fund of the Republic of Slovenia and in 1996 she joined the consulting company Socius, where she became Deputy General Manager in 2002. She worked in the field of corporate governance and education as well as in international projects. She continued her studies at the Faculty of Social Science doing a Postgraduate study of Non-profit Management. Since 1997 she is closely involved in activities of the national Association of Supervisory Board Members.

In 2004 she joined the association as Secretary General. Since than her career is professionally dedicated to consultancy, research and standards on Corporate Governance, educational and certification activities within the association. She is an author of many articles and columns on CG and supervisory boards issues and editor of many publications.

OLLI V. VIRTANEN

Director

Mr Virtanen is currently member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum, part of the IFC. He is also member of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

Prior to his career as management consultant Mr Virtanen was a business journalist at Kauppalehti, the Finnish business daily and Helsinki correspondent of the Financial Times, as well as reporter at the BBC External Services in London.

Graduated at the School of Journalism at the Tampere University ( Finland ), Olli V. Virtanen has lectured extensively on his speciality at universities, seminars and private companies. He has co-authored three related books “Investor relations as a strategic tool” (2000), “Annual General Meeting in the Spirit of Corporate Governance” (2004) and Guide for the Chairman of the Board (2006).

Patrick Zurstrassen

Director

Patrick Zurstrassen is “Ingénieur Civil” from the University of Liège, “Master of Science” from the University of Leeds and “Master of Business Administration” from the University of California in Los Angeles.
Patrick Zurstrassen is an independent director sitting on the boards of several investment funds and companies. After nearly 30 years of banking and fund management with "Credit Agricole Indosuez" Group, Patrick Zurstrassen founded in Luxembourg "The Directors' Office", that he chairs.
He participates to the works of several fund management and investment professional bodies, including ALFI, the Luxembourg fund industry association and FEFSI-EFAMA, the European fund and asset management federation that he both chaired in the past.
Patrick Zurstrassen chairs the Luxembourg Working Group on Corporate Governance and is the Secretary of the Second European Corporate Governance Conference [2005]. He is an affiliated member of the CFA Institute as well as a member of the International Corporate Governance Network, the European Corporate Governance Institute and the National Association of Corporate Directors [USA].
Patrick Zurstrassen has lectured finance at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Philippe Decleire

Chairman of the Membership Committee, member of the Management Committee and Treasurer

Philippe Decleire is an independent director sitting in several European groups’ boards and he manages JADRE network, that he founded in 1994. JADRE Network provides management services and advice to companies and organizations in various countries of the European Union. He is also managing director of several companies. After 15 years being involved in the national and international corporate banking activities’ development and management within KBC group and BACOB Bank (the current DEXIA), he joined Suez group in 1991 to take various management responsibilities in the fields of corporate finance, restructuring, project management and crisis management at an international level. Philippe Decleire is also member of the International Committee of the « Institut Français des Administrateurs » (IFA) and member of Guberna « L'Institut Belge des Administrateurs ». Philippe Decleire holds a degree in applied economy and management science with title of « ingénieur commercial et de gestion » from the « Université Catholique de Louvain » in Belgium (I.A.G.). He was born on 8th March 1953, lives in Brussels and has four children.

BEatrice RICHEZ-BAUM

Secretary General 

Lawyer and Doctor in Law, she set up the ecoDa Office in March 2005 and manages the European Confederation since then. She also works for the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry as an expert in international trade. She has published many articles related to European Lobbying and WTO.

Béatrice Richez-Baum was a lecturer in a Master's Degree in Law, International Affairs and Management at a French business school (ESSEC).