Wim Allegaert graduated from KUL Leuven in 1992. The next year he obtained his MBA in a combined program at ESSEC (Paris) and KUL.

Wim started his professional career with the KBC Group, where he held major responsabilities in the Asset Management department. In 2008 he was appointed General Manager of KBC Asset Management.

Since June 2010 Wim Allegaert is the Director Investor Relations of KBC Group and a board member of the BIRA.

Commercial Engineer Solvay, Michel Bande began his career in 1974 at Solvay and never left. He started as Junior Auditor and evolved in the finance department, including five years in Paris, until 1984 when he became successively IT Manager and Corporate Logistics & Supply Chain Manager.

In 1990, Michel took over the management of the SBU Consumer Products, and was partly based in Paris. He then evolved to the implementation of Corporate Purchasing Competence Centre until 2009 when he became Senior Executive Vice President Sustainable Development, the position he holds till end of 2012. Today, he is in charge of coordinating special projects for the Group (Extra-Financial / Int. Reporting, WBCSD Chem. WG, …).

He also spent 15 years as senior lecturer in Organisation at the University of Brussels (ULB). He is also Vice President External Relations of CSR Europe, Chair of Business Board of EABIS and Vice President of UNGC Belgian Chapter.

Barend van Bergen is partner and global head sustainability advisory at KPMG.

With over 18 years experience advising companies in climate change and sustainability, he is the author of a range of publications on the topic. He actively participates in industry dialogue, where he acts as an external liaison for KPMG.

He has worked in a wide range of sectors across Europe, Russia, Middle East, Japan, South Korea and America. He has an engineering degree in Technical Business Administration from Eindhoven University.     

David Craigen, a limited partner in Lansdowne Partners Limited Partnership, is manager of The Lansdowne European Hedge Fund.
David joined this $13 billion, London based, alternative equity house in 2000. Past experience was as a sell-side research analyst covering European asset managers and, previously, as a buy-side analyst with Baillie Gifford & Co, Edinburgh, the largest partnership owned money manager in the U.K.

David has a Masters Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Keble College, Oxford. He is a member of the College's campaign board.

Filip De Pauw is currently Senior Analyst and Member of the Research Management Team of ING.

Before, he was Head of Derivatives and Analyst at Delta Lloyd Securities in Belgium.

Filip has a Master in Applied Economics from the University of Ghent.

Bertrand Delcaire started his carreer in 1998 in the New York office of Air France, holding various positions in the USA commercial passenger division and moving in 2003 to the Paris headquarters.

In 2005, he joined the strategic planning team, where he was involved in a variety of key initiatives, including the restructuring of the medium-haul product launched in 2009.

For the past four years, he has been the deputy head of Investor Relations. Bertrand Delcaire is a graduate of the Ecole des mines de Paris and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michiel Ebeling is Managing Partner at MobGen and Chairman of the AB mobile Taskforce.

Prior to MobGen Michiel worked as Commercial Director at Blyk (a pioneer in mobile marketing) and Sanoma.

Peter Hinssen is one of Europe's thought leaders on the impact of technology on our society. He has a focus on the consumer adoption of technology, on the impact of the networked digital society and on the alignment between Business and IT.
Peter is co-founder of Across Group and is currently involved as a coach to executives to develop perspectives on the future and how to drive innovation.

He is also a board advisor on subjects related to innovation and IT. He develops executive education workshops and awareness sessions to bring business challenges with IT solutions, and to leverage the innovation potential of IT.
Peter lectures at various business schools in Europe such as London Business School (UK) and Antwerp Management School (Belgium). Peter is a passionate keynote speaker who is frequently welcomed at forums and conferences around the world.

Chris Hollis has been the head of Financial Communications at LVMH since the end of 2000. Chris joined LVMH after 15 years in the oil industry, where he worked for Elf Aquitaine in various financial posts in London, Paris (2 years as a contract negotiator), Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (5 years as Finance Director of an Exploration subsidiary) and finally in New York (5 years in investor relations).

Chris has an honours degree in Law, Economics and Politics from Buckingham University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Chris was a board member of NIRI's New York chapter between 1996 and 2000 and has been Vice President of the CLIFF since June 8th, 2007.

Philip Joos is a Full Professor of Accounting at Tilburg School of Economics and Management since July 2005 and Vice Dean of the TiasNimbas Business School at Tilburg University since September 2010. Philip Joos research is situated in the area of empirical financial accounting.

His dissertation research at Stanford University focused on earnings prediction and accounting-based equity valuation, with a specific application in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. He also investigated the role of earnings and R&D quality measures in a real options valuation model.

Another research interest is in initial public offerings (IPOs), with a particular focus on the (failure) risk assessment and the pricing of the risk. Recently, he has conducted research on the effects of the implementation of IFRS (international financial reporting standards). Philip Joos has published in various international journals such as the Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting Auditing & Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, European Accounting Review, Financial Management.

Steve Kelly, Managing Director, Thomson Reuters Extel: Steve is one of the foremost authorities on European Investment Industry opinion. His extensive range of contacts throughout the industry enables the Extel business to secure the quality of response which has secured its reputation.

He has overseen a 1,000% increase in Survey participation, and the extension of the Survey franchise into associated markets, such as UKSIF/Extel SRI Survey and including a range of bespoke projects for investment and commercial clients.

Before Extel, Steve was Director Corporate Communications at Primark Corporation.He was responsible for all advertising, PR and promotional activities for Broker-based Primark Corporation, who specialised in Financial Information Services.

Denis Kleiber had been Head of Financial Communication at Crédit Lyonnais since 1997. He joined the Economic and Financial Research division of Crédit Lyonnais in 1975. From 1983 to 1990 he was in charge of country risk research and then headed the Regulation and Solvency department in the Balance- Sheet Management division from 1991 to 1994, followed by the Structures department of the Financial Engineering division from 1994 to 1996.

Denis Kleiber is a graduate of ESSEC business school and has a Masters degree in law from Paris-Assas university.

Robert Klijn has more than 20 years experience in the financial services industry. At ING Equity Markets Robert initiated and led the Social Responsible Investment and Corporate Governance Brokerage.

He established a network of companies and organised road shows for them to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investors. At APG he was as Client Portfolio Manager a Member of the Sustainability & Governance Steering Committee. As an ESG Specialist at Fair Impact, Robert organises corporate and investor access. He co-founder of the Responsible Investment Corporate Access (RICA) conferences and represents several ESG research providers.

Robert is Chairman of the Working Group for Sustainable Investments of the Dutch Federation of Investment Professionals VBA.

Philippe Kubisa, partner Capital Markets & Accounting Advisory Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Philippe joined PwC in Paris in 1994. He spent four years in the United States dealing mainly with US listed companies. Philippe provides a full array of services to French com¬panies entering the capital markets and through conversion of their financial reporting to IFRS and or US GAAP.

He leads the "Financial Communication department" at PwC and is the PwC representative at « Observatoire de la Communication Financières ("OCF"). Philippe is Expert-Comptable, Commissaire aux comptes, Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant ("AICPA").

Gerbrand Nijman is Head of Investor Relations of VimpelCom, a leading global provider of telecommunications services operating in 17 countries with 215 million mobile customers it is the 7th largest mobile operator in the world.

VimpelCom is listed on the NYSE since 1996. Before joining VimpelCom in May 2011 he has been Head of IR of AEGON. He has been the President of the NEVIR till Summer 2012.

Patricia Pinto is Head of IR at Sonae, a leading retail company in Portugal, with two major partnerships in the shopping malls and telecommunications sectors.

She started her career in 1999 at Siemens in Germany, first in the controlling department, being then responsible as financial director for Italy, Portugal and Greece projects in the mobile networks telecommunications area. In 2004 she went back to Portugal to take over the responsibility as financial director of the sales department for the telecommunications area at Siemens in Portugal.

Over the last 5 years she was Head of IR and secretary to the Board of Directors of Sonae Industria, a moved last April to Sonae, another company of the same group, Efanor. Patricia Pinto is a board member of FIR, the Portuguese Investor Relations association, since its foundation in 2009, and has been the president since 2011.

Adrian Rusling is co-founder of Phoenix Investor Relations. He has advised public companies on their international IR strategies and programs for more than 20 years.

During this time he has worked with a wide cross-section of European and North American companies covering most sectors and market cap sizes.

Prior to founding Phoenix-IR, Adrian was one of the principals at Kuhn Partners (now a subsidiary of Thomson Financial) for 10 years from 1994 to 2004. From 1988 to 1994 he worked for Gavin Anderson & Company in London (3 years) and in Paris (3 years). Adrian started his career in London at Paragon Communications (1986-1988), today a Weber Shandwick subsidiary. Adrian graduated in 1986 with a BSc. (Hons) degree in Economics from University College London.

With a master degree in Economics from Paris Assas University in Law and Economics, Eliane Rouyer-Chevalier joined ACCOR Finance department in 1983 in charge of international Corporate Finance and International Cash Management.
In 1992, she created ACCOR Investor Relations department at a time when this position was existing in a limited number of international companies.
From March 2010 to September 2012, she was Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility at EDENRED, member of the Executive Committee.

Apart from those Executives responsibilities, Eliane Rouyer-Chevalier joined LEGRAND as an Independent Director, member of the Audit Committee in 2011. She also is , since 2004, President of the French Association of Investor Relations (CLIFF) representing 90% of French market capitalization and, since 2005, President of the Observatoire de la Communication Financière (Observatory of Financial Communications) which main purpose is to promote best practices in financial communications matters with a multidisciplinary approach.

Damien de Saint Germain is heading the Utilities Credit Research at Crédit Agricole CIB.

Prior to joining CA CIB in 2011, Damien headed the Utilities equity research team at CA Cheuvreux (European equity broker of Crédit Agricole Group) for seven years after spending several years working for Clinvest as a manager in mergers and acquisitions.

He holds a master degree in Finance from Paris-Dauphine University

Eun Ah Schittekat is Head of Credit Research at Petercam. She started her career in 1999 at PwC at auditor before joining Petercam in 2001 as fixed income analyst for the front office sales.

Then she moved to Petercam Asset Management in 2008 as fixed income analyst for the Investment Grade and High Yield bond funds. Her main focus now High Yield credits. She holds a master degree in Commercial and Management Engineering from IAG (UCL) and is CFA charterholder.

Frank Vandenborre joined Ageas, at that time still called Fortis, in January 2008 where he currently is head of Investor relations & Corporate Performance Management. Before joining Ageas he has been active for 14 years at Umicore and since 2005 in the demerged Copper activity of Umicore, Cumerio.

Frank started in the domain of Investor Relations in 2004 at Umicore, thereafter in Cumerio and since 2008 at Fortis, Ageas since 2010. At Umicore, besides working as Investor Relations, Frank was previously active in other domains like M&A, Strategy, Corporate Finance, Management Accounting and Controlling.

The broad experience build up over the years served him a lot to put Ageas, after the crisis of October 2008, back on the radar screen of the financial markets together with the new Ageas management and the IR team.Since January 2012 he's combining his responsibility as head of Investor Relations with the function "Head of Corporate Performance Management". In this context Frank's challenge is to put in place a Performance Management framework that supports the management and the Board to follow up and to ensure the execution of Ageas Vision' 2015 strategy.

Patrick Vermeulen, managing director, is head of desk (European Equity Group - Research Driven Process).

An employee since 1999, Patrick was previously joint-head of European research and a fund manager at Schroder Investment Management for nine years.

Patrick obtained an M.Fin in business economics at VLEKHO in Brussels (Licence en Sciences Economiques).

Miguel Viana is Head of IR at EDP - Energias de Portugal since 2006. In 2010, EDP was the winner in the Global Ranking for Financial Disclosure procedures by IR Global Awards (score of 96 out of 100). In 2012, EDP achieved the Top10 in the IR magazine ranking for investor relations programs in Europe.

Also in 2012, EDP was distinguished with the Euro Bond of the Year Award by IFR. Before being Head of IR at EDP, he was an equity research sell side analyst for 11 years (1994-2005) covering several stocks in Portugal and Spain, having worked for equity brokers such as Espirito Santo and BBVA (awarded by IRG Awards as best equity research analyst in Portugal in 2005).

He was also head of equities for Santander in Portugal in 2005/2006. 

Diederik Zandstra heads the European Corporate Client Group at NYSE Euronext and is responsible for NYSE Euronext’s listings operations across the EMEA region.

Prior to joining NYSE Euronext in September 2009, Diederik worked for over 12 years in investment banking for Renaissance Capital, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse in equity capital markets and investment banking.  Diederik holds an MSc from the London School of Economics. 

Diederik is a Dutch national.

Corné van Zeijl has worked in the investment business since 1986, first at Staal Bankiers, Robeco Effectenbank and Zurich Life, where he was Chief Investment Officer.

In 2003  Zurich was taken over by the SNS Reaal group and since then he is responsible for the Dutch equity portfolios for SNS Asset Management with total asset under management of around € 1 billion million. In 2007 he won the Gouden Stier (Golden Bull) award for best fund manager. In 2008, 2009 and 2011 he won the award for best investment expert. Besides running these portfolios, he is frequently asked to give his opinion on investment matters for radio, TV and in newspapers.

Furthermore he writes columns for the Wegener newspapers and het Financieele Dagblad. He also wrote for www.iex.nl, Hollands largest investment site. And last but not least he wrote a book on investment psychology, titled Centen en Sentiment. Over 7.000 copies have been sold.

Adrie Zwanenberg studied Economics at Erasmus University and holds a Ph.D Food Economics from University College Cork.

After working as an Assistant-Professor Business Studies at Wageningen Agricultural University, he started his career at Rabobank as Global Industry Specialist Dairy in 1996.

In 2002 he became Global Head Food & Agribusiness Research. Since August 2006, Adrie acted as advisor to the CFO and joined the Investor Relations department.
As of last year he is Head Investor Relations.