Simon Wills Joins RMA as a Director; Lode Beckers represents RMA to European Financial Institutions
Philadelphia, PA (September 20, 2005)—The Risk Management Association (RMA) announced today that it has expanded its presence in Europe with two key appointments. Based in the U.K., Simon Wills joins RMA as a Director; based in Brussels, Lode Beckers will be the Senior RMA Representative to the European financial services industry.
Wills is joining the RMA management team to lead the development of RMA’s operational risk management programs in Europe, and to participate in and lead various other services in Europe and around the globe. On his appointment, he has been seconded to the Operational Riskdata eXchange Association (ORX) as its first executive director.
Charles Taylor, director of operational risk at RMA in Philadelphia, said, “Simon is a recognized authority in the industry and brings to us and ORX a deep knowledge of European public policy and global financial services practice. He is the ideal person to lead our efforts in Europe and to lead our support for ORX.”
Previously, Wills was a director of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), where he led the representation of the British banking industry on the reform of the Basel Capital Accord and other changes in the regulatory framework. While at the BBA, Wills chaired the European Banking Federation Basel Working Group.
Beckers, a senior international financier and banker, is representing RMA to the European financial services and central banking communities. Beckers, who worked for Citibank for 28 years in seven countries, in 1996 founded LOBO N.V., an advisory and equity investment, firm focusing on EU-related strategic and organizational matters.
Over the past eight years, trade and industry federations, governments, and leading corporations have called on Lode’s expertise in assessing the euro’s impact on the European Single Market area.
RMA President and CEO Maurice H. Hartigan II said, “I am delighted to have Wills and Beckers join us as RMA expands its reach in the global financial market. Their deep knowledge of the financial services industry and its European leaders will have an enormous impact as we help the industry incorporate best practices in enterprise risk management.”
About RMA
Founded in 1914, the Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, and operational risk.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 3,000 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the association by 16,000 risk management professionals who are chapter members in financial centers throughout North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. Visit RMA on the Web at www.rmahq.org.
Contact:
Kathleen M. Beans
RMA PR Manager
215-446-4095
kbeans@rmahq.org