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.
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.
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)
Jean Dessain has over 30 years of experience in financial services. He started his career with Bank Paribas Belgium as a derivatives trader. He later spent 10 years at BNP Paribas Fortis, serving as General Manager of Capital & Funding, where he led the group’s capital raising and optimisation activities, managed relations with rating agencies, and was a member of the ALM Committee. He then transitioned to consulting for financial institutions.
In addition to his Board membership at MeDirect, he is Managing Director at Reacfin (active in actuary, quantitative finance, and AI for finance) and a Visiting Professor of Finance at UCLouvain. He holds master’s degrees in law (UCLouvain) and economics (UCLouvain), a Certificate in Machine Learning (Stanford University), and passed the exam to become a Certified Compliance Officer (FSMA).
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.
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 17 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).
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 17 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 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 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.