Five minutes with: Gaëtan Lefèvre

What are you thinking about right now?

How to deal with all of the internal and external demands in the most effective way, while making sure of setting the right priorities. It is a daily challenge.

What is your most treasured possession?

My family, and especially my son. Obviously, I do not ‘possess’ my family in the literal sense of the word, but they make up an important element of pride and stability in my life.

Who is your greatest hero?

I don’t have any particular hero, but I am fascinated by the great men and women of the past, and by the way in which they have influenced the history in our regions. These great strategists, through their visionary cast of mind, their actions and their foresight, have left enduring traces upon the way we choose to organise our societies. In some ways they can be seen as the forerunners of modern risk management. 

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken?

Changing the direction of my career. After starting off my working life in industry, moving into the world of risk and insurance management was a challenge. But in every risk there also lies a hidden opportunity. It is important not to have any regrets, but to seek out ways to enrich one’s professional experience at every turn.

What is your greatest achievement?

As a risk and insurance manager, my biggest achievement is having grasped the opportunity to develop the department I am currently in charge of and to have carved out a sustainable place for it in the organisation – or at least I hope it is sustainable.

As president of the Belgian risk management association, Belrim, I have contributed to the influence of the organisation and to the defence of its members’ interests.

What is your greatest fear?

In my private life, that something will happen to my family. It is all very well being a specialist in the management of risks and of crises, but you can still feel helpless and frightened when your emotional side triumphs over the rational side.

Meanwhile, in my working life, I always worry about having forgotten something important – a deadline in a file or a request to cover an identified risk, for example.

Tell us a secret

One of my secret habits is listening to classical music. Going to a live concert is, for me, a source of calm, a way of achieving a spiritual escape into other realms. Even in the car, listening to classical music after a long and difficult meeting can relieve all the pent-up stress and allow day-to-day concerns to be forgotten. Mozart has always been a faithful companion, every bit as much in life’s difficult moments as in the happiest of times. To sum up: from Mozart to Tchaikovsky, by way of Mahler or Rachmaninov – how many small moments of happiness lie in listening to them.

Gaëtan Lefèvre is group risk and insurance manager at Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie and chairman of the Belgian risk management association Belrim