ESMA's Conference 2025

Maria Luís Albuquerque is currently the European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union. She is a highly experienced Portuguese economist and politician, best known for her role as Minister of Finance in Portugal from 2013 to 2015. During her tenure, she played a critical role in managing the country's financial crisis. Prior to her position as finance minister, Albuquerque held various key positions in the public sector, including Head of Issuing and Markets at the Portuguese Treasury and Debt Management Agency. After leaving politics, she continued her career in the private sector, contributing her expertise in finance and economic policy to international organizations and advisory roles. Her professional experience reflects a deep understanding of fiscal management, economic reform, and European financial systems.

Stéphane Boujnah is CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, the pan-European market infrastructure operating regulated markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris. Euronext also operates post-trade infrastructures in Copenhagen, Milan, Oslo and Porto, as well as a pan-European electricity trading platform, Nord Pool, and a FX trading platform operating from New York London and Singapore. In addition, Euronext operates commercial and technology platforms in Bergen, Berlin, Espoo, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Munich, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Tallinn and Vilnius.
Stéphane Boujnah became CEO of Euronext in November 2015 when the company had revenues below EUR 500m and a market capitalisation below EUR 2bn. As of October 2024, Euronext generates revenues close to EUR 1.5bn and has a market capitalisation of around €10bn. Stéphane Boujnah led the acquisitions of the Irish Stock Exchange in 2018, Oslo Børs in 2019, VP Securities in Copenhagen and Nord Pool in Oslo in 2020, and Borsa Italiana Group in 2021.
Before joining Euronext, from 2010 to 2015, Stéphane Boujnah was part of the team in charge of developing the Banco Santander business across Europe. First, he was Head of Santander Global Banking and Markets for France and Benelux where he developed significantly the advisory business. He was then appointed Head of Santander Global Banking and Markets for Continental Europe.

Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani is the Chair of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers. A graduate of the Paris Institut d’Études Politiques and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, as well as an alumnus of the Master in Politics at New York University, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani has served as a senior civil servant for close to 20 years. She began her career in 1993 at the French Treasury as Deputy to the Secretary General of the Club de Paris and later Deputy to the Head of the Energy, Mines and Telecoms Office of the State Investments Department.
In 1997, she joined the French Permanent Representation Office to the European Union in Brussels as Financial Attaché in charge of competition, state aid and financial services.
Three years later, she joined the cabinet of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry as a technical advisor in charge of European Affairs.
From 2000 to 2007, she worked at the Treasury, first as Head of the Office of Credit Institutions and Investment Firms and Secretary General of the National Euro Committee, in the State and Economic Financing Department. She was later appointed Deputy Director of Banks and General Interest Financing.
In 2007, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani became Deputy CEO of the National Federation of the Crédit Agricole. In 2010, she joined the Office of the Prime Minister as Deputy Director. From 2012 to 2014, she was an Inspector General of Finance and from 2014 to 2019, became Chief Executive Officer of the French Banking Federation and the Association of French Banks.
In 2019, she was appointed General Secretary of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, where she also served as a Senior Defence and Security Official.

Nadia Calviño is a Spanish economist and lawyer with a prominent career as civil servant and politician in the Spanish government and the European Commission.
Before becoming President of the European Investment Bank Group on January 1st 2024, Ms. Calviño served from June 2018 until December 2023 as Vice-President of Spain, Minister for Economy, Trade and Business and Minister for Economy and Digitalization. She chaired the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF in 2022-2023.
Before joining the Spanish government, Ms. Calviño had a 12-year tenure at the European Commission where she was Deputy Director General for Competition, Deputy Director General for Financial Services, and Director General responsible for the EU Budget since 2014.
Ms. Calviño holds a degree in economics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a degree in law from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.

Natasha Cazenave has been Executive Director of ESMA since 1 June 2021. 
Before taking up her current role she was Managing Director, Head of the Policy and International Affairs Directorate at the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), where she worked for over 10 years in various roles. 
During that period, at the international level, she was elected twice chair of IOSCO's Policy Committee on investment management in 2012 and 2014. In February 2015, she was appointed co-Chair of the Financial Stability Board's experts group on shadow banking.
Natasha Cazenave began her career at Ernst & Young Corporate Finance as part of the Valuation & Business Modelling team. She spent eight years working at Deminor, a consultancy firm specialised in the defence of minority shareholders rights, where she was in charge of collective actions for investors who suffered losses as a result of securities violations, and the promotion of best practices in the field of corporate governance. She holds a Master's degree from the Paris Dauphine University in Banking, Finance and Insurance.

Jurand Drop is Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Finance in charge of the Departments of Public Debt, Financial Market Development, Value for Money and Accounting as well as the Legal Department. He supervises the Public Finance Discipline Office, the Accounting Standards Committee and the Polish Agency for Audit Oversight. He is a member of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers and the Government Work Programming Team, and represents the Minister of Finance in the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. He also serves as the Chief Spokesperson for Public Finance Discipline.
In the past, he has held a number of leadership positions, including the role of Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Administration and Digitization, where he was responsible for information and  telecommunication policies, cyber security, and e-government.
He has extensive experience in European affairs. In Brussels, he worked as a counsellor at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union and at Directorates-General in positions related to economic reforms and information and communication technologies. During this time, he participated in the process of developing a number of European policies, including the i2010 digital development policy, the Lisbon Strategy, cohesion policy programs and, more recently, in the negotiations on the National Recovery Plan or the European Semester procedure. Among other things, he represented Poland in the Task Force on Greece, dealing with the country’s government-debt crisis. Jurand Drop is a graduate of International Economic Relations at the Academy of Economics (now the University of Economics) in Cracow. In the past, he taught macroeconomics, mathematical economics and European monetary union at public and private universities.

Adena Friedman has been the Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq since Jan. 1, 2017, and was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors on Jan. 1, 2023. She brings more than 20 years of industry leadership and expertise and is credited with significantly shaping Nasdaq’s transformation into a leading global exchange and technology company serving the financial industry.
Since December 2018, Adena has served as a Class B director to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In January 2024, Adena was elected to the Business Roundtable (BRT) Board of Directors and currently serves as the Chair of the BRT's Technology Committee. In July 2020, Adena began her term as a member of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust.
Adena earned an M.B.A. from Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University and holds a B.A. in political science from Williams College.

Alexandra Jour-Schroeder is Deputy Director General at the European Commission´s Directorate-General for Financial Services, Financial Market and Capital Markets Union since March 2021. Prior to that she was Acting Deputy Director General for Justice and consumers and Director for Criminal Justice. Ms Jour-Schroeder joined the European Commission in 1996 and held different positions inter alia in competition, industry, justice and consumer policies. Between 1997 and 2007 she was a member of Cabinet of several European Commissioners and of Vice-President Verheugen. Before joining the European Commission, Alexandra Jour-Schroder worked for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs. She has a graduate in law. 

Melanie Kreis is a physicist by training and holds an MBA from INSEAD. She began her career in 1997 as a consultant at McKinsey. In 2000 she moved to private equity firm Apax Partners. In 2004 she joined DHL Group, where she initially worked in the Corporate Development department in Bonn and later in the UK, leading the Exel integration.
In October 2006 she assumed the position of Executive Vice President (EVP) Corporate Office. In 2009 she took over as EVP Corporate Controlling and in April 2013 as CFO of DHL Express. On November 1st 2014 Melanie Kreis was promoted to the Board of Management of DHL Group, as the Board Member for Human Resources and Labor Director.
Since October 1st 2016, she has been the Chief Financial Officer of DHL Group. On May 9, 2023, Melanie Kreis also took on the position of President of Deutsches Aktieninstitut.

Enrico Letta served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2013 to 2014. Currently, he is the Dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics, and Global Affairs at IE University, and President of the Jacques Delors Institute. Since 2023, he has also served as Chair of the GESDA Diplomacy Forum in Geneva. 
From March 2021 to February 2023, he was the National Secretary of the Democratic Party in Italy. Prior to that, from 2015 to 2021, he was Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris. In 2019, he was appointed President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) for a two-year term.
Earlier in his career, Letta served as Minister for EU Affairs (1998–1999), Minister for Industry, Trade and Crafts (2000), Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade (2000–2001), and Undersecretary of State to Prime Minister Romano Prodi (2006–2008).

Erkki Liikanen became Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees in October 2018. He has been reappointed twice; his third three-year term will end on 30 September 2027.
Before taking on the role as Trustee Chair, he served two seven-year terms as governor of the Bank of Finland. Before joining the Finnish central bank, he served two terms as a commissioner at the European Commission, first for Budget and then for Enterprise and the Information Society.
Mr Liikanen has worked internationally for many years. From 2004 to 2018, he was a governor of the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. In 2012, Mr Liikanen chaired a group of experts set up by the European Commission to consider EU banking sector reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. The group’s recommendations are known as the ‘Liikanen report’.
His career began in 1972 when, at the age of 21, he was elected as the youngest-ever representative to the parliament of Finland. During his 18 years there, Mr Liikanen served as Finland’s minister of finance (from 1987 to 2009) and as the head of the Finnish mission to the European Union at the ministry for foreign affairs (from 1990 to 1994).
Mr Liikanen is an economist by training. He holds a masters degree in Political Science (Economics) from the University of Helsinki. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Technology, Finland (2003), Aalto University School of Economics, Finland (2011) and University of Eastern Finland (2019). 

Klaus Löber is the Chair of the CCP Supervisory Committee (CCP SC) at ESMA, which was established in 2020 by the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). The CCP SC has a mandate in respect of EU CCPs as well as those third-country CCPs that have been recognised under EMIR. This includes responsibilities towards a resilient clearing ecosystem in the EU, ensuring supervisory convergence, monitoring and supervising CCPs, as appropriate, in view of the risks that they may pose to the EU financial system. He is also chairing the ESMA CCP Policy Committee contributing to the EU Single Rule Book in the area of CCPs. Mr Löber is co-chair of the Operational Resilience Group of CPMI-IOSCO.
Prior to this role, Mr Löber was the Head of Oversight of the European Central Bank in charge of the oversight of financial market infrastructures, payments instruments and schemes. Earlier positions include the Head of Secretariat of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the global standard setting body in the area of payments, clearing and settlement as well as positions in the European Commission, Deutsche Bundesbank and private practice.
Mr Löber regularly publishes on financial markets legal, regulatory and infrastructure issues and lectures at universities.  

Aleksandra Mączyńska is Managing Director of BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users, the public interest non-governmental organisation, defending the interests of citizens as financial services users at European level. Aleksandra leads BF’s research and advocacy activities.  
Before joining BETTER FINANCE Aleksandra worked for the Polish consumer and competition watchdog (UOKiK). She studied at the Faculty of Management at the Poznan University of Economics and at the Warsaw School of Economics. She worked at the Division for World Bank International Monetary Fund, Debt Issues and International Finance Structure at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. 
Aleksandra was an expert at EU Council’s Working Party on Financial Services. She is member of the Consumer Policy Advisory Group (CPAG) of the DG JUST, and ESMA’s Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group as well as the Vice Chair of EIOPA’s Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group (OPSG). 

Wim Mijs was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the European Banking Federation in 2014.
Between 2007 and 2014 Wim served as CEO of the Dutch banking association NVB. During this tenure he transformed the NVB into a modern industry association, positioning it as the key representative of the banking sector in the wake of the financial crisis.
Wim studied law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, specialising in European and International law. After his studies he worked at the International Court of Arbitration at the Peace Palace in The Hague. In 1993 he joined ABN AMRO in Amsterdam before moving to Brussels to head up the bank’s EU liaison office. Wim moved back to The Hague in 2002 where he became the Head of Government Affairs for ABN AMRO.
Wim is a member of the Advisory Board of Leiden Law School and the Industry Chair of the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum (EPFSF). He is also a Board Member of the Salzburg Global Forum and additionally, serves as a Board Member of the Dutch Royal Automobile Club (KNAC).
Between 2011 and 2018, Wim held various institutional roles within the International and European financial/banking community: Chairman of the International Banking Federation; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the EBF; and Chairman of the Board of Euribor, now known as the European Money Market Institute.  

Laura Noonan is a senior finance reporter with Bloomberg News, covering major financial stories across the world, with a particular interest in policy and regulation, cross-border issues and the intersection between traditional finance and NBFIs. She covered similar topics at the Financial Times for almost a decade, finishing as Financial Regulation Editor in early 2024. She has also worked for Reuters, the Irish Independent and the Sunday Business Post, which she joined after graduating from Dublin City University's journalism programme. She passed all three levels of the CFA exams but no longer holds the charter.

Sandro Pierri is CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) and President of EFAMA. He has over 32 years of experience in the asset management industry. Sandro started with BNPP AM in 2017 as Head of Global Client Group. He was appointed CEO in July 2021 and President of EFAMA since June 2023. Prior to joining the firm, Sandro was Chief Executive Officer at Pioneer Investments. Between 2004 and 2012, Sandro held various senior positions at Pioneer Investments, including Head of Western Europe and International, Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer Investments Italy and Head of International Distribution. Before joining Pioneer Investments, Sandro was Chief Executive Officer of Pixel Investment Management, and preceding that, Chief Executive Officer of ING Italy Retail. He began his career in 1989 as a US Equity Manager for San Paolo Fondi. Sandro holds a degree in Economics from Universita degli Studi di Torino, in Italy.

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 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.

Jean-Paul Servais is the Chairman of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA). He is also Chairman of IOSCO, as well as Chairman of the IOSCO European Regional Committee. He is also a board member of several international supervisory bodies for the financial sector: ESMA and ESRB. He is also the chair of the OECD Corporate Governance Committee. He is also professor at the University of Brussels (ULB) (LL.M. « International Business Law» & special Master in Tax Law). He is author or co-author of numerous contribution in particular in areas of relevance to the FSMA's activities. 

Evert van Walsum started his career in banking in the Netherlands. After that period, he joined the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), where he worked in various roles in policy and supervision, in the markets area and in the field of consumer protection. His last position at the AFM was Head of the Capital Markets Department.  
At ESMA, Evert is Head of the Investor Protection and Sustainable Finance Department, responsible for investor protection, asset management, corporate finance, corporate reporting, and sustainability.  
Evert has studied at the University of Amsterdam and at INSEAD Fontainebleau. 

David Wright worked for 34 years in the European Commission in Brussels. He was a member of President Delors’ Advisory Group and a member of both Lord Brittan’s and President Santer’s Cabinets in the 1990s covering financial services, industry, energy and sustainable development issues. From 2000 he played a major role in integrating European capital markets becoming Deputy-Director General for Financial Policy and Markets and acting as Rapporteur on both the Lamfalussy and de Larosière Committees.
From 2012 to March 2016 he was the Secretary General of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) based in Madrid. David worked to make IOSCO stronger and more influential globally. He launched a number of important initiatives on global financial policy, training and education for securities regulators, as well as deepening work with emerging market countries. He represented IOSCO on the Financial Stability Board. David is now the Chairman of Eurofi and a Partner at Flint Global in London.
David received the 2016 Stefan A. Riesenfeld Memorial Award from the University of California, Berkeley, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of international law.
David is a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford and he has lectured on financial services policy all over the world including at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Sciences-Po, ESADE and Bocconi.