Deputy Director General, DG FISMA, European Commission
Alexandra Jour-Schroeder is Deputy Director General at the European Commission overseeing the work of the Directorate-General for Financial Services and Financial Markets. She has long-standing experience in EU policies having joined the European Commission in 1996 where she held different positions inter alia in competition, industry-, justice and consumer policies. For 10 years she was a member of Cabinet of several European Commissioners. Before joining the European Commission, Alexandra started her professional career in the European Department of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs. She has a graduate in law.
Managing Director of the Swiss Finance Council
Esther Widmer has been Managing Director of the Swiss Finance Council since 1 January 2021. She was previously the Financial Services Attachée at the Mission of Switzerland to the European Union since 2016. In this capacity, she has been responsible for monitoring and analysing the developments of EU financial market policy and regulation with regard to the possible impact on Switzerland and related advocacy work. Before joining the Mission she was Deputy Head of Regulation at FINMA, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. In this role, she was working on various national financial market regulation projects and also Head of FINMA’s EU desk. During her time at FINMA she was seconded to the European Commission as a National Expert for five months in 2015 where she was able to work on EU financial services regulation on the side of the EU Institutions. Esther Widmer had joined FINMA after several years of experience as an Attorney specialised in Banking and Finance. She is admitted to the bar in Switzerland and holds a PhD in law.
Managing Director, Brussels Office, City of London Corporation
Nick Collier joined the City of London Corporation as its new Managing Director of the Brussels office in March 2019. He was previously Global Head of Government Relations at Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) and before that worked at a range of organisations in the financial services sector, including Morgan Stanley and the Bank of England and, until recently, served as Chair of TheCityUK’s Public Affairs Group as well as Deputy Chair of the International Regulatory Strategy Group. Nick is chair of diplomatic engagement at the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange. He holds a MSC in Economics and Finance from the London School of Economics and a BA from Oxford.
Executive Director, EMEA, DTCC
Michalis heads Government Relations in EMEA for the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation - DTCC. He is responsible for DTCC’s policy and regulatory strategy in EMEA and has been running the DTCC’s Brussels office since 2011. Michalis represents the firm before policymakers, supervisors and industry, having the oversight of DTCC’s overall policy and regulatory activity on capital markets, clearing and settlement, trade reporting, operational resilience and digital assets. He is a thought leader in European capital markets and a recognised expert on clearing and new financial technologies. Michalis is an occasional Visiting Lecturer in several European Universities and is fluent in English, French and Greek. Prior to this, Michalis has worked for a top tier policy advisory in Brussels, a couple of political think tanks and the European Commission. A Greek and Belgian national, Michalis has academic degrees in international politics and political economy from UK and Greek universities.
Journalist
Huw Jones has worked as a journalist for nearly 40 years, mostly at Reuters News where he reported on Wall Street in New York, the European Union in Brussels and the City financial sector, Bank of England and regulators in London.