Carsten Kobbe-Dunker

Project Manager, Basler Germany

– IT Strategy
– Project Management

Carsten Kobbe-Dunker is a Project Manager at Basler Versicherungen. He is currently co-project leader of the Guidewire PoC Implementation at Basler Germany and is responsible for the IT portion of the project.

Carsten has been working in the financial industry for over 15 years; starting with SAP implementation projects for insurance companies and mortgage lending banks. He has a wealth of experience in various projects, both as a consultant and a project manager. Carsten graduated with a degree in Industrial Engineering at Hamburg University of Technology. He is a Project Management Professional according to PMI.

Hobbies:
Carsten enjoys sailing, skiing and equestrianism.

Wolfgang Pander

Project Manager, Basler Germany

– STRATEGY NON-LIFE-BUSINESS

– CAR INSURANCE

– INNOVATION TOPICS

Wolfgang Pander is co-project Leader for the Guidewire PoC Implementation at Basler Germany as well as head of IT Co-ordination for non-life business. He is member of the German Innovation Team.

Wolfgang was one of the co-founders of FRI:DAY; the mobile insurer of the Baloise group located in Berlin and was responsible for product and pricing. Prior to that, he was head of car insurance at the Basler Germany. One of the main challenges was the portfolio shift in this business line. He has also had former engagements at the HDI Industrie Versicherer as head of commercial fleet insurance, Branch Manager in Essen as well as Generali group where he lead the casualty lines.

Ralf Stankat

CIO, Basler Germany

Ralf Stankat, born in 1960, has been Member of the Board of Basler in Germany where he has been responsible for IT and Operations since April 2015.
Ralf Stankat studied business informatics and administrative sciences, and holds a master’s degree in Advanced Management from Management Zentrum, St. Gallen.
Since 1991 at Schwäbisch Hall AG, Ralf Stankat headed major IT projects and strategy projects aimed at realigning the Schwäbisch Hall Group and became CIO in 2000.
He joined VR Kreditwerk AG in 2003 as a Member of the Board where he was responsible for the overall IT of the company.
From 2007, he was Managing Director of Wüstenrot & Württembergische Informatik GmbH. The focus here was the development of a group wide IT infrastructure and strategy as well as the migration of different IT systems from acquired companies. In 2010 Ralf Stankat became chairman of the board.
From 2012 to 2014 he was Chief Representative at Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG, where he was responsible for the group strategy program.

Dr. Wolff Graulich

Element

Dr. Wolff Graulich joined the Board of Management of Element in January of 2017. He is overseeing the complete ramp-up of the operational side of the insurance start-up as well as the strategy and business-case development.
Prior to his engagement in the insurtech-sector he was heading the German SME business of AXA. Before that he was responsible for the international business of ARAG SE, including the development of start-ups in UK and Scandinavia.
Dr. Graulich received his PhD in Molecular Biology at the Philipps University of Marburg in 2000. He is living in the Rhineland area with his wife and three children.

Michał Hucał

Board Member for Marketing, Nationale-Nederlanden

Michał Hucał, Board Member for Marketing.  

The scope of his responsibilities includes the marketing area at Nationale-Nederlanden, creating product offerings as well as overseeing the company’s development in terms of creating a positive user experience based on new technologies. Additionally, he takes care of building strategic partnerships within bancassurance based on a new cooperation model as well as further development of Nationale-Nederlanden’s offering via traditional channels 

Prior to joining Nationale-Nederlanden he worked in dynamic banking organisations such as Alior Bank, ING Bank and Bank BPH; all of which stand out in terms of their innovative approach towards customer service with the use of mobile technologies. In these institutions he was responsible for managing the product offering, direct marketing, strategic partnerships. Michal also headed the implementation of new solutions in mobile and internet banking and CRM technologies which were aimed to improve processes in the customer service area. He is also a former Vice-President of Alior Bank

Piotr Kucharski

CIO, AXA

Evandro Manolas

IT Claims Manager, Allianz UK

Evandro is the IT Claims Manager responsible for the delivery, development and support of Allianz UK Claims systems. This includes ownership and development of the Guidewire applications. Evandro has been with Allianz for almost ten years, and has successfully been involved in IT development and management for the last 18 years.

Anna Messerli

Board Member, Prudential

Anna Messerli – Board Member at Prudential in Poland

Anna Messerli is an experienced financier and licensed actuary. She holds a degree in Economics from the University of Lodz as well as a diploma from the Actuarial School of Western Ontario University in Warsaw. Anna started her career in the financial industry in 1994 as one of the team members establishing Nationale-Nederlanden in Poland. In 1997 she became a Board Member and CFO at Royal PBK Life Company. From 1999 to 2011 she worked as Head of Actuarial Department and Chief Actuary at ING. Later, she managed the Actuarial Services Department at PwC in Poland for over eighteen months. Since 2012 she has been managing the actuarial and financial services at Prudential in Poland. She is a mother of two daughters and enjoys Nordic walking as well as cycling in her free time.

Grzegorz Podleśny

Partner, Sollers Consulting

Grzegorz Podleśny 

– CORE SYSTEMS
– INSURANCE SECTOR
– AGILE METHODOLOGY
– GUIDEWIRE 

Grzegorz Podleśny is a Partner of Sollers Consulting. He is responsible for Sollers’ projects and activities in the UK and PL insurance markets. 

Selected projects: 

Grzegorz led the Sollers Consulting team during the transformation of a large Polish insurance company’s central system. He supported the launch of one of the largest pension funds in Romania; from the definition of processes and organisation to implementation of IT systems. He also took part in several projects aimed at optimising insurance sales, service processes and defining IT support for such processes. 

Grzegorz graduated from the Finance and Banking Faculty at the Warsaw School of Economics; specialising in the field of Retail Banking. He was a Member of the Board of AEGEE-Warsaw in 2003-2004 and was responsible for creating and maintaining relationships with sponsors. 

Foreign languages: English, German, Russian 

Adam Rates

Head of IT Strategy and Architecture, Allianz UK

Adam is the Head of IT Strategy and Architecture for Allianz UK and part of the Core Architecture Group for Allianz SE.  From a start in the Airline Data world Adam moved into Insurance and now has 20 years’ experience working with technology across all aspects of this fascinating and challenging industry including core platforms, image and workflow, datacenters, offshoring, outsourcing and M&A.  As part of his role Adam constantly appraises the disruptive technology landscape within his role, and is an expert in understanding the ability of technology to meet changing customer needs and to drive business improvement.

Michał Trochimczuk

Managing Partner Sollers Consulting

– STRATEGY
– IT TRENDS

Michał Trochimczuk is the co-founder of Sollers Consulting. He supervises the advisory team in Sollers Consulting. He has considerable experience in projects for financial institutions.

Selected projects:

Michał was leading projects such as starting building a pension fund from scratch, the centralization of operational processes in a large insurance company, which led to increasing the efficiency of the company’s headquarters, design and implementation of applications that support the work of the back office and the front office of an insurer and building operational strategy for a large bank.

Michał graduated the Faculty of Electronics and Informatics of Warsaw Technical University. He was a member of the European Commission of AEGEE – Europe in 1994-1995. He was the founder and the President of AEGEE in Warsaw.

Marcin Pluta

Managing Partner Sollers Consulting

– SOFTWARE FACTORY
– IT TRENDS

Marcin Pluta is a co-founder of Sollers Consulting. He manages the IT team in Sollers Consulting. He has considerable experience in the field of IT implementations for the insurance and telecommunications industries.

Selected projects:

He has led projects of the design and implementation of technical architecture, testing and quality, for clients such as France Telecom Mobile in Paris, large insurance companies and public institutions in Poland.

Marcin holds a Master of Science degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications, is a graduate of the Franco-Polish School of New Information and Communication Technologies in Poznan and the National Institute of Telecommunications in Paris.

Christian Kromann

CEO of TIA Technology

Christian Kromann CEO Skills and experience Christian Kromann has been at the center of the Fintech industry for more than 20 years, originally working as a Risk Manager at Unibank (now Nordea). He joined SunGard more than 16 years ago as head of consulting services for the company’s Trading and Risk business. Mr. Kromann then became general manager, responsible for the Nordic region. Since then Mr. Kromann has been running various businesses as Chief Revenue Officer for the Global Trading. His diverse background gives him a deep understanding of running a software company and the needs of a complex financial organizations and the market and regulatory challenges that they face. In May 2016 Mr. Kromann joined TIA Technology as CEO. Educational background Mr. Kromann holds a master degree in economics from University of Copenhagen.

John Macdonald

CEO of Fadata

John Macdonald is Chief Executive Officer in Fadata, which is a leading provider of advanced insurance policy administration and claims solutions.
With over 20 years of experience in FinTech, John Macdonald has held a wide range of executive positions at leading software companies, including SAP, Algorithmics, IBM and S&P Capital IQ. Under his leadership, John has brought next-generation technologies to market. He has successfully led growth strategies, driven global sales and marketing organizations, and developed innovative award-winning products for the banking, capital markets and insurance industries.

Keith Stonell

Managing Director EMEA of Guidewire

Keith Stonell joined Guidewire in January 2013 as Managing Director of EMEA. Keith is based in London and is leading the next phase of investment to further develop the EMEA business for Guidewire. Keith joined Guidewire from Temenos Software where he led a portion of their European and Emerging Markets Operations. Previous to Temenos, Keith acted as the managing Director for EMEA for the Financial Services Division of Misys PLC. Both Temenos and Misys are large enterprise software companies selling core systems to the financial services industry.