Lombard Int’l names CEO successor to John Van Der Wielen

Lombard International has named former UBS Deutschland chief executive Axel Hörger as head of its European operation, succeeding current incumbent John Van Der Wielen.

Lombard Int’l names CEO successor to John Van Der Wielen

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Van Der Wielen, who left Friends Provident International after Aviva’s acquisition of the Friends Life group, became interim chief executive for Europe last year and will remain a non-executive of the life insurance-based wealth management business.

Hörger will report to John Hillman, executive chairman of the Luxembourg and Philadelphia headquartered Lombard International which re-branded in September 2015 as an integrated global business.

This followed the merger of Lombard International Assurance and Philadelphia Financial, and subsequent acquisition in January of Zurich Eurolife Luxembourg’s private banking solutions and confirmation of plans to open offices in Hong Kong and Singapore with the appointment of Tammy Lu Tsui as chief executive for Asia.

Hillman said Hörger’s experience in managing and developing successful financial services brands “will prove invaluable” as the franchise expands across Europe and develops its overarching strategy to build a global wealth planning solutions business.

Hörger’s Luxembourg-based role, effective from 1 February, makes him responsible for “continuing the progress of the transatlantic business model to better serve the increasingly complex needs of high net worth individuals and their families,” the company said in a statement.

At UBS Deutschland he led the re-engineering of the UBS governance model in Germany, increased operational and front-line efficiency across all business lines, introduced new technology and steered major IT and operational projects, it added.

He was previously head of institutional sales for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in EMEA, leading client acquisition activities and defining market and product strategy across the region.