Committees/
working groups

Ecoda Policy

Press

Patrick Zurstrassen

Chairman

Patrick Zurstrassen is an independent director. After nearly 30 years of banking and fund management with "Credit Agricole Indosuez" Group, Patrick Zurstrassen founded in Luxembourg "The Directors' Office". He sits on the board of several fund management and investment companies for group such as Lombard Odier, Barclays, Pioneer and Goldman Sachs.

Patrick Zurstrassen has been founding chairman of the Luxembourg Institute of Directors.

He is a member of ICGN, GCGF, ECGI, IDC [ USA ]  and NACD [ USA ]

Juan alvarez-vijande

Former Chairman, Honorary President, Director

Juan Alvarez-Vijande has more than 19 years experience in the Boardrooms, as Non-Executive Director (as independent director among others), as Executive Director, Advisory Board member as well as Advisor to Boards on Good Corporate Governance Practices. Boardroom experience on Listed Companies, Non Listed and Family firms. Experience gained among others sectors in Telecommunications, Consulting, Energy, Infrastructures, Internet, Defence/Space, Franchise, and others. Among other companies are Amper Group, Cable and Wireless SA, Baytree International , Alcatel Space and Telefonica affiliates, Detea Corporation and others.

Currently and from 2003 he is IC-A (Spanish Board Directors Association) Chief Executive, and IC-A Co-founder. In addition to IC-A activities, he is ecoDa Chairman, he is in different boardrooms as well as advising Boards of Directors and Senior Management on Corporate Governance Best Practices and Strategy on different business sectors. Board Directors Training Tutor, Corporate Governance Practical Guides author for Board Directors, and independent advisor to Venture Capital firms.

As Senior Executive during more than 17 years he served as CEO/MD/CD in multinational companies and affiliates. During four years in Telecommunications sector , he has successful turnaround, restructured and refocus a major Telco group ; also as CEO has restructured and integrated various companies acquired by an USA based in Europe Telco (GTS) and set-up an USA multinational ASP group as partner founder.

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 works as Secretary General at Slovenian Directors' Association in Ljubljana since 2004. Her career is professionally dedicated to Corporate Governance (CG) through consultancy, research, professional standards and codes as well as to educational and certification activities within the association. She is an author and editor of different CG publications, manuals and articles. She is CG lecturer and facilitator licensed by IFC and Global Corporate Governance Forum (GCGF). She is a board evaluation consultant. In 2007 she became a Board member of ecoDa (European Confederation of Directors' Association) in Brussels and in 2010 a supervisory board member of Petrol d.d. Ljubljana, the largest company in Slovenia.

LUTGART VAN DEN BERGHE

Director

Lutgart Van den Berghe is Executive Director of GUBERNA (l'Institut des Administrateurs / Het Instituut voor Bestuurders) and Extra-Ordinary Professor at the University of Ghent (B) and the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School . Her main topic of interest is “Corporate Governance”. In the school, she serves as an Executive Director and Chairman of the Competence Center "Entrepreneurship, Governance and Strategy”.

She is a Member of the Belgian Commission for Corporate Governance and Non-Executive Director in several international companies, such as CSM (NL), SHV (NL), ELECTRABEL (B) and BELGACOM (B). She is also a Member of the Advisory Board of Lazard ( Benelux ). At EcoDA (European Confederation of Directors' Association), she is a Member of the Management and chairwoman of its policy committee.

She was a member of the Board of the ING Group (NL, 1991-2003), KLM (NL, 2001 - 2004), Solvay (NL, 2003-2007), Capco NV (B, 2000 – 2003), DVV (B, 1995 - 1997), member of the Audit Committee of the Flemish Government (B, 2000 – 2004) and Chairman of the Proximus Foundation (until 2005).

Lutgart Van den Berghe is doctor in Business Economics of the University of Gent (B).

TURID SOLVANG

Director

Turid Elisabeth Solvang, is co-Founder and Managing Director of the Norwegian Institute of Directors, established in 2009. ( www.styreinstitutt.no )

Turid took her M. Sc. in Business at BI Norwegian Business School in 1989. She also holds a Master degree in Scenario planning. Turid has extensive experience in corporate communications, as well as many years experience in board rooms as Non-Executive Director in both corporate boards (mainly financial and service sector) and membership associations.

Partly as a result of the Norwegian female quota law, from 2004 onwards, she has focused on board related products and services, including recruiting for corporate boards, and as co-owner and managing director of Infovidi AS , a project-development company based in Oslo , Norway . InfoVidi's core activity is delivering services that allow board members, executives and organizations to easily access and analyze key information. ( www.directorportal.com ). She was formerly responsible for corporate communication at Burson-Marsteller (the leading global public relations and public affairs firm) in Oslo , and was head of marketing at Fearnley Data, Oslo .

SIMON WALKER

Director

Simon Walker joined the Institute of Directors as Director General in October 2011.
Previously he was Chief Executive of the BVCA, the organisation that represents British
private equity and venture capital, from October 2007. Between 2003 and 2007 Simon
worked at Reuters as Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing. He was
previously Communications Secretary to HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace. He was
Director of Corporate Affairs at British Airways and a non-executive director of Comair Ltd
(South Africa). From 1996-1997 Simon worked as a special adviser in the Prime Minister’s
Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street.
Simon was a partner at Brunswick, the public relations group, and Director of European
Public Affairs for Hill & Knowlton in Brussels. He was a member of the Better Regulation
Commission. He is a governor of the environmental foundation, The Hillary Summit and a
member of the parliamentary Speakers Advisory Committee on Public Engagement.
Simon was born in South Africa, and has worked as a journalist and consultant in New
Zealand, Belgium and the UK. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol
College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union. He was a Knight Journalism
Fellow at Stanford University. He is married with two children.

MAARIT AARNI-SIRVIO

Director

Maarit Aarni-Sirviö M.Sc. (Chem.Eng.), eMBA had a career spanning more than 30 years in the petrochemical industry. After completing her master's thesis with the then Pekema Oy, she joined Neste Oy and was involved in building and initiating Finland 's petrochemical industry, particularly in aromatic production. She began her career as a Production Engineer and Project Manager, ending up as a Production Manager.

The recession of the early 1990s and the liberalisation of trade led to an upheaval and major restructuring in the petrochemical industry. Aarni-Sirviö participated in the Neste–Statoil merger and completed her eMBA thesis on the integration of the organisations. In 1994 she transferred to the service of Borealis, formed from Neste and Statoil petrochemical units, first to Finland as Business Manager and then in 1997 to Denmark as Business Unit Vice President with responsibility for the company's feedstock and olefin operations. At the same time, a substantial project was initiated in Abu Dhabi to construct a green field petrochemical complex in Ruwais (Borouge). Aarni-Sirviö served in the project's steering group for four years up to the start-up of the project. From olefin operations, she moved back to aromatic operations as Vice President, serving in the steering group of a pre-feasibility study for an aromatic project (Kemaweyat) planned for Abu Dhabi . She returned permanently to Finland in 2008 as President & CEO of Mint of Finland Ltd, in whose service she remained until November 2010.

Maarit Aarni-Sirviö is today a senior adviser at Eera. She is a Member of the Board of Rautaruukki and Wärtsilä. She is also a Member of the Board of the Finnish Association of Professional Board Members and the Kassandra International Art Centre. She has previously served on the boards of Ponsse Plc and Vattenfall AB.

LARS-ERIK FORSGARDH

ROGER BARKER

Dr. Roger Barker has been Head of Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors (UK) since 2008. Dr. Barker sits on advisory boards at a number of organisations, including the European Confederation of Directors' Associations (ecoDa) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). He is a visiting lecturer at the Said Business School ( University of Oxford ), ESSEC (Paris), UCL ( London ) and the Ministry of Defence (UK), and a former adviser to the EU Economic and Social Committee in Brussels . Dr. Barker's recent book - Corporate Governance, Competition, and Political Parties: Explaining Corporate Governance Change in Europe – was published by Oxford University Press in January 2010. He is also the author (with Dr. Neville Bain) of the IoD's main guide to the role of the board, The Effective Board: Building Individual and Board Success, which was published by Kogan Page in September 2010. Dr. Barker spent the first part of his career in various senior roles in investment banking in London and Switzerland . He is the holder of a doctorate on corporate governance from Oxford University , where he was a Lecturer at Merton College , and has degrees in economics, finance and political science from the universities of Cambridge , Southampton and Cardiff .

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 

Doctor in Law, Béatrice Richez-Baum is also graduated from the Paris Bar Training School. Having completed her Ph. D. thesis on international Trade and after various experiences at the European Economic and Social Committee and at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Béatrice started her career as a legal expert for the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2000. Béatrice has served as Secretary General since the creation of the European Confederation of Directors’ Associations (ecoDa), in 2005. She is in charge of running the ecoDa Secretariat on a daily basis. She is responsible for monitoring the European activities in terms of Corporate Governance and Company Law at large, for lobbying the European institutions and for developing the association internally and externally. She has published many articles, reports and position papers related to European Lobbying and WTO. In 2002, she drafted the first report assessing French businesses’ practices in terms of European lobbying and issued updated versions since then. Béatrice was a lecturer in a Master's Degree in Law, International Affairs and Management at a French business school (ESSEC). She belongs to a lobbyists’ network based in Brussels (GNL).

AMANDINE FIVET

Assistant

Amandine Fivet graduated in 2010 from the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting of the School of International Interpreters (EII) in Mons, Belgium. She has studied translation from English and Russian languages into French, her mother tongue, and has always been very keen on International Relations, Communication and others since then. She is also member of various non-profit organizations holding cultural events in her hometown and member of the General Assembly of Munalux, Mutualité neutre Namur-Luxembourg.

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.

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.