Jo Willaert to succeed Julia Graham as FERMA president in 2015

FERMA has made three appointments to secure its leadership succession.

Jo Willaert has been named deputy president, a newly created position, and he will become the next president of FERMA at the end of president Julia Graham’s two-year term in October 2015.

Willaert was one of three FERMA vice-presidents and is corporate risk manager for Agfa-Gevaert based in Belgium. He is also a board member of the Belgian risk management association, BELRIM.

Edwin Meyer, FERMA board member and general manager risk and insurance management for ArcelorMittal based in Luxembourg, will become secretary general. He is also a board member of the German risk management association, DVS. He takes over from Pierre Sonigo, who has served FERMA in this role since 2004.

Anders Esbjörnsson, FERMA board member and group risk manager of NCC based in Sweden, will become treasurer. He is a member of the Swedish risk management association, SWERMA. Esbjörnsson takes over from Fernand De Winter, who has served FERMA in this role since 2007.

Meyer and Esbjörnsson will become members of the FERMA executive committee and will join Graham, Willaert, the two remaining vice-presidents, Michel Dennery and Alessandro De Felice, and FERMA executive director Florence Bindelle.

Graham said: “These are important appointments for FERMA to secure the future succession of our leadership. This is vital for FERMA to maintain and develop its role as the voice of European risk management, insurance and risk financing and to continue with ground-breaking projects such as the certification of European risk professionals, which we will launch in 2015.”

Graham also paid tribute to the work of Sonigo and De Winter. “FERMA owes an enormous thank you to Pierre and Fernand. Their passion and commitment have been at the heart of the evolution of FERMA and have helped to make FERMA the thriving federation we have today.”  

During his time with FERMA, Sonigo has been closely involved with FERMA’s work on the EU Environmental Liability Directive and Solvency II, among other projects. In 2012, he received a special award from StrategicRISK for his outstanding contribution to risk management and in 2013 he was given a life time achievement award from the Institute of Risk Management.

These appointments took effect on 11 December 2014, the date on which the FERMA board met and approved them.