Leadership

Board of Directors

Marcia De Wachter

Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair
Marcia De Wachter
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair

Marcia De Wachter served in several positions at the National Bank of Belgium where she became the first female Vice Governor. She was Economic Advisor to the Cabinet of the Belgian Prime Minister and economics professor at different universities. She is currently also an Independent Non-Executive Director at LeaseInvest of Group Ackermans&vanHaaren. Marcia is founder of Brain-at-Trust, a consultancy coaching C-suite Executives. She is a founding member of the international Women’s Forum for Economy and Society and of Women in Finance. She was awarded the ‘Exceptional Woman of the Year’ award by the Belgian Government and as ‘Alumnus of the Year’ at the University of Antwerp. She is a frequent and acclaimed keynote speaker on national and international fora.

Alain Moreau

Chief Executive Officer
Alain Moreau
Chief Executive Officer

Alain Moreau served between 2009 and 2019 as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Belgium. Between 2012 and 2016, he was also Global Head of Investment Products and Insurances for Deutsche Bank Group. Prior to that he served as Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Deutsche Bank Belgium and as a Junior Lecturer in Business Administration for the University of Namur. Mr Moreau holds a Master of Engineering and a degree in Business Administration from UCLouvain (Belgium).

Marija Fenech

Chief Risk Officer
Marija Fenech
Chief Risk Officer

Marija has over 11 years banking experience with various senior risk positions within MeDirect Group gaining extensive knowledge in risk management. Marija has a Bachelors degree from the University of Malta and is a qualified Professional Risk Manager (PRM)

Bart Bronselaer

Independent Non-Executive Director
Bart Bronselaer
Independent Non-Executive Director

Bart Bronselaer has more than 20 years’ experience in European institutional financial services. He started his career with Merrill Lynch International in London, where he held various positions, the last as Head of Debt Capital Markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. There he had the task of structuring and selling financial solutions to various clients, such as financial institutions, industrial companies and public bodies.

In 2003, he became an independent expert in financial services. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Royal Park Investments, a “bad bank” formed after the collapse of Fortis in 2008. In 2012 he joined the board of directors of Dexia NV, and Dexia Credit Local where he is president of the Risk Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. From November 2019 till May 2020 he was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board ad interim of Dexia and director and Chief Executive Officer ad interim of Dexia Crédit Local.

Bart Bronselaer is also a member of the board of directors of United Pensions, an international solution for employers and pension funds aiming to bring their pension administration and pension assets under one roof.

Bart Bronselaer holds a master's degree in industrial sciences, as well as a master’s degree in information sciences and a master’s degree in business administration. He participated in the Risk Management in Banking Programme, held at INSEAD.

Michael Adrian Bussey

Independent Non-Executive Director
Michael Adrian Bussey
Independent Non-Executive Director

Michael Bussey joined HSBC in 1980 as an international executive and spent over twenty years as an expatriate in a variety of senior roles. During that period he lived and worked in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, North America and the UK. His last role with HSBC was CEO HSBC Private Banking EMEA. From 2001, Michael decided to remain in UK and specialise in Private Banking and Wealth Management. After a short period with Schroders, he was appointed CEO Private Banking and Trust at NM Rothschild. His last executive role was as CEO of Arbuthnot Latham & Co. In 2011 Michael began his “portfolio” career by chairing UK Wealth Management which was a Leeds based IFA owned by Duke Street Capital. A successful exit was achieved in 2014 by way of a trade sale. He is chairman of Gentoo Genie Ltd, an award winning FCA regulated business which has created a new financing structure for first time home buyers, and a chairman and non-executive director of Credit Suisse (UK) Ltd, where he also chairs the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.

Frederic Hannequart

Independent Non-Executive Director
Frederic Hannequart
Independent Non-Executive Director

Frederic Hannequart has more than 35 years experience in financial services, both banking and securities services. He started his career with Bank Brussels Lambert, where he held various positions in Asia and Europe. He then moved to Euroclear, where he was an executive Board member for more than 15 years, first as chief financial officer, then as chief business officer. Besides his Board membership of MeDirect, he is also an independent board member of AXA Belgium, and a consular judge in the Commercial Court of Brussels. He holds Master’s degrees in Law (Leuven), Economics (Louvain-la-Neuve) and Business Administration (Cornell University)

John Zarb

Independent Non-Executive Director
John Zarb
Independent Non-Executive Director

John Zarb retired from his role as partner at PwC at the end of 2014 after a career spanning over 40 years spent within the audit and advisory practices of the firm. He is a past president of the Malta Institute of Accountants, and served for a number of years on the Accountancy Board and as Malta’s representative on the EU Accounting Regulatory Committee. John is currently the chairman of PG plc, a board member and chairman of the audit committee of Tumas Investments plc and a director of Foster Clark Products Limited. He joined the board of MeDirect as an independent non-executive director.

Jean-Claude Maher

Chief Operating Officer
Jean-Claude Maher
Chief Operating Officer

Jean-Claude Maher has more than 29 years of experience in Banking. He joined Deutsche Bank AG in 1994 where he held various roles in Research, Corporate Banking, Transaction Banking, Private Banking and Country Management. Throughout his career he held managerial positions on country, regional and global levels. Since 2014 he served as Country Chief Operating Officer and Branch Manager of Deutsche Bank in Belgium. Jean-Claude holds a master’s degree in Economics and Political Sciences from the University of Cologne, Germany.

Executive committee

Alain Moreau

Chief Executive Officer
Alain Moreau
Chief Executive Officer

Alain Moreau served between 2009 and 2019 as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Belgium. Between 2012 and 2016, he was also Global Head of Investment Products and Insurances for Deutsche Bank Group. Prior to that he served as Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Deutsche Bank Belgium and as a Junior Lecturer in Business Administration for the University of Namur. Mr Moreau holds a Master of Engineering and a degree in Business Administration from UCLouvain (Belgium).

Marija Fenech

Chief Risk Officer
Marija Fenech
Chief Risk Officer

Marija has over 11 years banking experience with various senior risk positions within MeDirect Group gaining extensive knowledge in risk management. Marija has a Bachelors degree from the University of Malta and is a qualified Professional Risk Manager (PRM)

Jean-Claude Maher

Chief Operating Officer
Jean-Claude Maher
Chief Operating Officer

Jean-Claude Maher has more than 29 years of experience in Banking. He joined Deutsche Bank AG in 1994 where he held various roles in Research, Corporate Banking, Transaction Banking, Private Banking and Country Management. Throughout his career he held managerial positions on country, regional and global levels. Since 2014 he served as Country Chief Operating Officer and Branch Manager of Deutsche Bank in Belgium. Jean-Claude holds a master’s degree in Economics and Political Sciences from the University of Cologne, Germany.

Other Key Officers

Ivo Raschl

Head of Dutch Mortgages
Ivo Raschl
Head of Dutch Mortgages

Ivo has more than 20 years’ experience in the finance services sector, with a focus on mortgage business. After getting his Master in Finance from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, he started his career as a consultant working on structured finance transactions in the Netherlands and abroad. From 2007 to 2011, Ivo worked in London as a credit rating analyst at one of the major global credit rating agencies, where he was responsible for rating financial instruments backed by Dutch mortgage portfolios. At the end of 2011 he rejoined as a consultant at the Big Four where he worked earlier, to advise financial institutions and companies in the Dutch mortgages sector on corporate finance and valuations, mortgage business strategy and market entries. In February 2021, Ivo joined MeDirect Belgium, where is responsible for the Dutch Mortgages business.

Thomas De Boe

Head of Belgian Mortgages
Thomas De Boe
Head of Belgian Mortgages

Thomas has close to 20 years experience in the financial services sector.  After getting his Master in Business Engineering from the Solvay Business School, he started his career in the mortgage loan origination activity. He then moved on to become a project manager at AXA Belgium where he delivered Six Sigma projects for various departments. Thomas then became a consultant, first for IBM then for EY, performing various projects for almost all major banks in Belgium. As a consultant, he helped build the new online mortgage loan offering of Keytrade Bank and subsequently joined the latter as Credit Product Manager. His role quickly evolved to Head of Product Management. Thomas joined MeDirect Belgium in November 2021.

Michal Kwasniak

Head of Treasury and ALM
Michal Kwasniak
Head of Treasury and ALM

Michal joined the MeDirect group in 2017. He has 13 years of banking experience gained at HSBC, RBS and MeDirect. Throughout the years, he has held various roles in corporate banking, finance, change management, treasury and ALM. Michal is CFA Charterholder and member of CFA Society in Belgium and Poland. He holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Banking from the University of Warsaw.

Steven De Backer

Head of Marketing
Steven De Backer
Head of Marketing

Steven De Backer joined MeDirect as of June 2022. He previously was the Head of Communication and Activation at Keytrade Bank. He started his marketing career in the FMCG sector working for Unilever and Alken-Maes and then broadened his marketing scope with commercial Key Account responsibilities at De Persgroep. Steven holds a Master in law from Ghent University and an MBA from Vlerick Management School.

Kim Van de Velden

Head of legal
Kim Van de Velden
Head of legal

Kim Van de Velden started her career as a lawyer by working for international law firms. She also worked as a tax consultant for the Big Four and has over 15 years of experience in providing advice and assisting (financial services) companies with their legal and tax affairs. She has acquired extensive knowledge in M&A transactions and litigation. 

She holds a Master’s in law (LLM) from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a Master in Tax Management from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management. She is also a guest lecturer in tax law at the Louvain School of Management (LSM) since 2020 and a teaching assistant at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) since 2012.  

She is an accredited in-house counsel and member of the Belgian Institute of in-house counsels (IBJ-IJE).

Bruno Ceysens

Head of Compliance
Bruno Ceysens
Head of Compliance

Bruno Ceysens joined MeDirect in 2020 but started his career in the financial industry in 2002 joining Kredietbank Luxembourg (now Quintet Private Banking) in Monaco as junior portfolio manager. He then joined Dexia Asset Management (now Candriam) in 2004 before working for Accenture on the implementation of MiFID I in the Private Banking department of a major Belgian bank. After spending more than 3 years in a “wealth management boutique” in Luxembourg (Qualion Finance), Bruno joined Bank Degroof (now Bank Degroof Petercam) in 2011 as member of the Compliance Department where he has acquired extensive experience in all areas of Compliance while being a central contact point for the regulators. Bruno holds a Degree in economics of the Catholic University of Louvain, has completed all three levels of the CFA and successfully passed the Febelfin Certified Compliance Officer exam.

Isabelle Menezes

Head of Internal Audit
Isabelle Menezes
Head of Internal Audit

Isabelle has been working in the banking industry for the last 23 years. She started her career in 1999 and spent 13 years within the Dexia Group, first within Dexia Bank and then within the Holding company. She has held various operational functions and throughout her different roles, has gained broad managerial experience. She then joined the Group Internal Audit function where she gained international experience as Internal Auditor, auditing a wide-range of operational and strategic processes. She later took on the management of a part of the Internal Audit team within the Bank, focused on Retail and Commercial Banking. From 2010 to 2012, she spent couple of years at Group Strategic Planning and Control as Head of Cost and Project Control before joining Triodos Bank as Internal Auditor, responsible for the Belgian Branch. As part of an integrated Audit Function, she participated in a number of international assignments as well. Between 2016 and 2021, she joined the Business Lending department and managed the Business Banking Operations team, mainly in charge of process improvements, projects and Credit administration. Isabelle joined MeDirect Bank SA in February 2022 as Head of Internal Audit (pending regulatory approval).