Rym Ayadi, Associate Professor of International Business and Finance and Founding Director of the International Research Centre on Cooperative Finance (IRCCF) at HEC Montreal Business School since 2014. She is Honorary Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City University of London since 2017. She is Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) in Slovenia. She is member of several high-level expert groups in the European Commission, European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). She is Individual Member of Finance Watch, Expert Member of the European Commission’s Financial Services Users Group (FSUG) since 2017 and Expert Member of the European Parliament’s Banking Union Expert Group on Banking Resolution since 2015. She is the Founding President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA) since 2012 and Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES) since 2015. Previous positions include Senior Research Fellow and Head of Financial Institutions Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels between 2001 and 2014. Rym holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University Paris Dauphine.

For more information please visit : www.rymayadi.com

Prof. Harald Benink is Professor of Banking and Finance and Fellow of the Centre for Economic Research (CentER) at Tilburg University, where he has been since since 2008. He has been a Senior Research Associate to the Financial Markets Group (FMG) of the London School of Economics (LSE) since 2001.

Previously, during the period 2008-2011, Benink served as Dean of International Affairs and Member of the Executive Board at the Tilburg University School of Economics and Management. Prior to this, from 1999-2008, Benink was Professor of Finance at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University. At RSM, he also served as Executive Director of RSM Corporation with a primary responsibility for executive education; Founding Chairman and Dean of the BSc/MSc in International Business Administration program and Member of the Executive Board. Benink’s research focuses on banking and finance and on European financial and monetary integration. He has been published in various academic journals, including The Journal of Finance and the Journal of Empirical Finance.

Professor Ed Kane is a past president and fellow of the American Finance Association, a former Guggenheim fellow, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves on the editorial boards of seven professional journals. A founding member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, Professor Kane rejoined this committee in the summer of 2005. He also served for twelve years as a Trustee and member of the Finance Committee of Teachers Insurance. Currently, he consults for the World Bank and is a Senior Fellow in the FDIC’s Center for Financial Research.

Specific research areas include financial crisis management; deposit insurance; causes and implications of financial change; the changing structure of financial services competition and regulation; politics of policy-making; and the taxation of financial institutions and instruments.

His teaching interests include banking, financial institutions and regulation, interest rates, and political economy. He has also taught Applied Econometrics, Taxation, Asset Pricing, Macroeconomic Theory, and International Finance.

Before returning to BC in 1992, Professor Kane occupied the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics at Ohio State University for 20 years. Before that, he taught at BC, Princeton University, and Iowa State University. He has also held visiting positions at Istanbul University, Simon Fraser University, Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Deakin University (Australia), and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand).

Autorité des marchés financiers

Gouro Diagne began her career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC), where she spent 5 years. Subsequently, she accumulated 20 years’ experience in banking in Europe, in Africa and in Canada. During these years, she assumed a variety of managerial roles in accounting and finance for several French banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Lyonnais between 1996 and 2003) in France and Senegal. From 2004 to 2008, she was a senior auditor and quality director in Internal Audit at the National Bank of Canada.

Since 2008, Mrs Diagne is at the Autorité des marchés financiers of Québec. She is currently senior director of supervision of deposit-taking institutions.

Gouro obtained her master’s degree in finance and accounting in France and completed her studies with an MBA in Canada. In addition, she belongs to several professional orders: CPA-CMA, CIA, CRMA.

Alain Leprohon has been the Vice-President of Finance at Desjardins Group since August 2012. He is in charge of monitoring Desjardins Group’s financial performance and overseeing the organization’s financial reporting, capital management and financial governance. He also leads the Audit and Inspection Commission. Since 2016, Mr. Leprohon has also been in charge of the Financial Services Optimization Division and the Support Functions, Security Fund and Special Projects Finance Division.

Desjardins Group is the leading cooperative financial group in Canada and the sixth largest cooperative financial group in the world, with assets close to $268 billion. It has been rated one of the Best Employers in Canada by Aon Hewitt. To meet the diverse needs of its members and clients, Desjardins offers a full range of products and services to individuals and businesses through its extensive distribution network, online platforms and subsidiaries across Canada. Counted among the world’s strongest banks according to The Banker magazine, Desjardins has one of the highest capital ratios and credit ratings in the industry.

Since joining Desjardins in 2002, Mr. Leprohon has held a number of different positions in finance. He has been in charge of finance and compliance at Caisse centrale Desjardins, which included providing support to the treasury. He has also been the head of finance for the Business Services sector and the finance representative for Desjardins Securities. Mr. Leprohon is actively involved in Desjardins Group’s investor road shows and the monitoring process for rating agencies.

Prior to his career at Desjardins, he was a financial consultant for various major national and international firms. Over the years, he has taught a number of courses in finance, notably for the joint MBA program at Université de Montréal. He has also given talks on topics of current interest related to the field of finance.

Mr. Leprohon has a degree in business administration from HEC Montreal and became a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec (CPA, CA) in 1989.

Reinhard H. Schmidt ist – seit seiner Pensionierung im Jahre 2014 – als Seniorprofessor nach wie vor in Lehre und >Forschung an der Frankfurter Goethe-Universität auf dem Gebiet Finance/Internatio­nal Banking tätig. Herr Schmidt gehört dem Frankfurter wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fachbereich seit 1991 als Professor an. Davor war er Finanzprofessor an den Universitäten Göttingen (1981-83) und Trier (1983-91) gewesen. Er hat in Heidelberg und Frankfurt studiert. In Frankfurt hat er 1971 sein Diplom und 1974 seine Promotion abgeschlossen und sich dort auch 1980 für das Fach Betriebswirtschaftslehre habilitiert. Nach seiner Promotion war er für ein Jahr als Gastwissen­schaftler an der Stanford Graduate School of Business. Später hat er Gastprofessuren an der Georgetown University in Washington, DC, an mehreren Universitäten in Paris, in Mailand, an der Wharton School der University of Pennsylvania und an der Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio wahrgenommen.

Seine Forschungs- und Lehrtätigkeit deckt ein breites Themenspektrum ab, das von der Finanztheorie über das Finanzmanagement bis zum internationalen Bank- und Finanzwesen reicht. Der Schwer­punkt seiner Arbeiten in den letzten Jahren liegt auf den Themen Vergleich von Finanzsystemen in Industrieländern, Finanzregulierung und Entwicklungsfinanzierung. Herr Schmidt ist Autor, Koautor und Herausgeber von 24 Büchern und etwa 150 Fachartikeln in deutschen und internationalen Fachzeitschriften. Fünf Jahre lang war er Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender er entwicklungsorientierten Bank-Holding ProCredit AG.

Patrick Déry, who holds a master’s degree in economics from Laval University, has been Superintendent, Solvency since February 2013.

In this capacity, Mr. Déry is responsible for the oversight and regulation of insurance companies, trust companies, savings companies and financial services cooperatives carrying on business in Québec in order to protect consumers, increase confidence in Québec’s financial sector and promote its development.

The superintendence lead by Mr. Déry is also the deposit insurer and resolution agency for one of the 7 systemically important financial institutions in Canada, which is also one of the largest financial cooperative groups in the world. The integrated regulator model of the Autorité allows it to fully play the role of a risk minimizer to the benefit of Québec’s and Canada’s financial stability.

His staff, made up of one hundred employees specializing in various areas, ensure that businesses subject to AMF oversight meet Québec’s legal, normative and regulatory requirements. The financial soundness and management of these businesses are regularly assessed to ensure that they are solvent and that they follow sound business practices. AMF Solvency also ensures the development, review and implementation of guidelines, notices and standards relating to the areas for which it is responsible.

At the Canadian level, Mr. Déry chairs the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) since March, 2015. He also was elected member of the Executive Council of the International Association of Deposit Insurers in November, 2016.

During his career, Mr. Déry has also held several high-level positions in Québec’s civil service. In particular, he was part of the Québec Ministry of Finance for some 12 years, where he helped manage the impacts of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on the major financial institutions operating in Québec. Mr. Déry also served as Superintendent, Client Services, Compensation and Distribution from July 2011 to September 2012.

Mr. Déry represents the AMF at the Board of Directors of the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations and was also a member of the Board of Directors of Hydro-Québec from October 2012 to December 2014.

Please click here to download the closing speech