Keynotes 2025
Lieutenant General Sussli is responsible for the leadership and the development of the Swiss Armed Forces. He heads the Department’s defence sector and is directly subordinate to the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). Under his command as Chief of the Armed Forces are the Armed Forces Staff, Joint Operations Command, the Armed Forces Logistics Organisation, the Cyber Command and the Training and Education Command.
Military Career: From Captain and company commander of a mobile hospital company in 1995 to Corps Commander and Chief of the Army in 2020, he held various leadership roles in logistics and command support.
Civilian Career: After early international experience as an officer with the UNTAG mission in Namibia, he pursued a civilian career in finance, including roles as Director at UBS and COO at IFBS AG. He gained extensive expertise in product management and investment advisory through senior positions at Bank Vontobel and Credit Suisse, culminating in his role as CEO, Vontobel Financial Products, in Singapore in 2014. In 2015, he transitioned to the professional officer corps.
Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller is the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and trans-Atlantic Relations at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. A German native herself, she is an expert on German, European, and trans-Atlantic foreign and security policy, as well as international law and human rights. From 2019-2020, Dr. Stelzenmüller held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress and from 2014-2019 served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Prior to joining Brookings, she directed the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and later served as Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the organization, heading the Transatlantic Trends Program. Dr. Stelzenmüller’s work in the think tank sphere follows a distinguished career in journalism, including the role of Defense and International Security Editor in the political section of DIE ZEIT from 1994-2005. She has contributed to a variety of publications, writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, and is a frequent commentator on American and European news outlets.
The Speakers 2025
Antje Beck has headed the Corporate Insurance department of the Mahle Group worldwide since the end of 2018 and is Managing Director of the in-house broker MAHLE Versicherungsvermittlung GmbH. Prior to this, she held the same position at the Eberspächer Group for 13 years, where she set up an international insurance programme and enterprise risk management. As an insurance expert, she has been involved in the transformation of the automotive industry from combustion engines to alternative drive technologies for 19 years. She began her career in the insurance industry in 1995, with legal predecessors of today’s AXA XL. A graduate in business administration, she is a board member of the German Insurance Association (GVNW), heads the Inhouse Brokers and Group Insurance Departments working group and represents the association on FERMA’s Sustainability Committee.
Stephan Berger is an experienced cybersecurity expert with over a decade of professional experience. He currently serves as Head of Investigations, leading the Incident Response team at the Swiss company InfoGuard. In this role, he investigates security incidents and compromised networks.
In addition to his work at InfoGuard, Stephan Berger regularly shares his expertise at international conferences and in professional publications. Active on social media and his personal blog, Stephan Berger publishes analyses and commentary on digital forensics and incident response topics. He also lectures on IT security-related topics at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
Alexandra Bösch is a lawyer and partner in the business law firm Badertscher Rechtsanwälte AG in Zurich. She has been advising domestic and foreign insurers for 20 years on all aspects of private insurance law and insurance supervisory law, including intermediary law. She specialises in the particularities of the Lloyd’s market. Alexandra Bösch has extensive experience in the assessment and settlement of complex claims, primarily in the area of professional and directors and officers liability insurance, and conducts coverage proceedings for insurers or represents them in arbitration proceedings. Previously, Alexandra Bösch worked for around 10 years for leading Swiss insurance companies as a liability underwriter and legal claims counsel in the international industrial insurance business.
Alexandra Braun has been responsible for Financial Lines Underwriting for Germany and Switzerland in Allianz Commercial’s large corporate customer segment since 2023.
The business economist and business lawyer started her professional career at Marsh in Stuttgart. As a subject matter expert in Financial & Professional Lines, she has learned D&O insurance from ground up and experienced the cycles of the D&O market on the broker side. Since 2010, she has held various senior positions in Financial Lines Underwriting in Germany and in a global role as Senior Manager in Risk Management. D&O insurance, IPO protection, special solutions for financial service providers, criminal law protection concepts and international insurance programs are her professional focus.
After studying Insurance at the TH Cologne, Gülsah Dagdelen started her Career in Financial Lines, specializing in Financial Institutions especially Funds- and Assetmanagers at a Placement broker and MGA in London and Munich.
In 2014 she moved to HCC in Barcelona as an Underwriter for Financial Lines for the D-A-CH Regions. In 2017 she took over Cyber for Germany and Austria, in 2019 this responsibility was extended to continental Europe.
Since 2020 Gülsah Dagdelen is responsible for Cyber in the EMEA and Latam regions.
Daniel Halter is a passionate risk manager, trained in insurance and risk management. Sustainable prevention and close co-operation with partners are particularly close to his heart, with the aim of reducing risks, losses and costs.
He has been involved in over 30 M&A transactions and set up several innovative risk financing concepts. Daniel Halter prepared three global companies for a listing on the stock exchange. Since April 2023, Daniel Halter has been working at Sandoz, the global leader in generics and biosimilars.
Jörg Heilmann is a lawyer and authorised representative at the renowned specialist insurance law firm Segger Insurance Law, where he is responsible for D&O insurance. He has outstanding expertise and more than 20 years of experience in the field of financial lines and in particular D&O insurance and has held senior positions at AIG, VOV and Köberich Financial Lines (KFL), among others.
During his 20-year career with Baker Tilly, Ben has handled business interruption losses and related investigations of various scopes and sizes for insurers, lawyers and corporates across the globe. Since 2014, Ben has helped to develop Baker Tilly’s cyber practice, working on some of the largest claims in the London and wider global insurance market, with policyholders located in the UK, US and Europe. Ben is a former chair of the cyber claims committee at the International Underwriting Association, which addresses issues relating to the handling of cyber claims in the London insurance market. He regularly presents at conferences around the world on cyber related matters, and works with insurers, lawyers and policyholders to help develop cyber thought leadership content.
Ralph Hofmann-Credner has more than 23 years of experience advising particularly the financial services industry, was 11 years Lloyd’s General Representative in Austria, is one of the leading and go to experts in his field by international clients, lectures insurance law at university and is usually involved in big landmark insurance cases concerning Austrian law. His main activities include roles of a coverage, a monitoring, or a defence counsel, supporting insurer and insurance intermediaries with a market entry in Austria, assisting with the corporate housekeeping for establishing, registering and running a corporate branch in Austria as well as a tax representative role, and regulatory/licensing aspects. Ralph initially graduated in 2001 from the University of Vienna in Austria (Mag. iur., Dr. iur.) and later from the University of St Gallen in Switzerland (M.B.L.-HSG), gained working experience in Austria, the US and SEE, is admitted as attorney-at-law in Austria since 2007 and enrolled as Solicitor in England and Wales since 2011 (not practicing).
Natalie Kress-Happel has been working in the Cyber division at Chubb for 12 years. Initially as a Cyber Underwriter at ACE, later as a Cyber Practice Leader and currently as Cyber Line Manager for the Eastern Europe region. Her current responsibilities include the adaptation and execution of the cyber strategy in the individual markets. Prior to her professionalization in Cyber, Natalie worked in Technical Insurance and holds a degree in Business Administration.
Pawel Paluch has been the Global Underwriting Manager for Management Liability at Zurich Insurance since 2022 – globally responsible for Commercial D&O, EPL, Fiduciary/PTL, and Fidelity/Commercial Crime. Previously, he held various underwriting and leadership positions at Zurich in Switzerland and Chubb in Germany and Austria. Pawel studied law in Wroclaw and Munich and earned an Executive MBA in Financial Services & Insurance from the University of St. Gallen.
As CEO of cysmo Cyber Risk GmbH, Jonas Schwade drives innovation in cyber risk assessment with the market-leading “Outside-in” technology, redefining how insurers approach cyber risk. With deep expertise in cyber risk and insurance, he regularly speaks at global conferences, shaping the future of cyber insurance through cutting-edge solutions. In addition, he supports insurtechs as an advisory member, fostering innovation and collaboration within the industry.
Sylvie Verdier is a Senior Underwriter Cyber at AXA XL in Switzerland. She has over 15 years of experience in the insurance industry, the majority of which has been in Cyber and Technology E&O underwriting. Throughout her career, Sylvie Verdier has held different underwriting roles at major insurance carriers with local and international responsibility. She also contributed to several publications in academic and industry journals. Sylvie Verdier holds a PHD in Management and is a Certified Cyber Insurance Specialist (CCIS).
Dr. Mark Wilhelm advises decision-makers and companies in critical situations, for example after major losses or compliance incidents, in complex transactions or in the event of imminent personal liability. Legal market publications and business media such as JUVE, Chambers, Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche and Legal 500 rank him among the leading lawyers in Germany advising on commercial law. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in insurance law.
Mark worked for an international law firm for several years before founding the law firm WILHELM in 2006 together with co-partner Lars Winkler – a firm that has recently won several awards and now acts with 20 lawyers and consultants in Düsseldorf, Berlin, and Munich. He is author of the book ‘Verhandeln im Schadenfall’ (about negotiations during claim settlement) and has written numerous publications and legal commentaries.
Moderation
Regula Elsener started her journalistic career at the age of 15 as a freelancer for various newspapers and radio stations in Eastern Switzerland. At the age of 21 she made the leap to Swiss television, where she worked as an editor and presenter for nine years (including “TAF”, “Zirkusfestival Monte Carlo”, “Spätausgabe Tagesschau”, “Millionengala”). In 2005 she founded her own company “Relations GmbH – die Medienmacher” and has since worked as a freelance journalist, moderator and speaker.
The Organizers
Markus Haefeli is a founding partner of Haefeli & Schroeder Financial Lines AG. As the specialist broker for Financial Lines (FL), he focuses on major customers and also developed the first web-based FL-SME comparison and conclusion platform for brokers in Switzerland. Prior to this, the lawyer and economist was Head Financial Lines at Zurich Insurance Company, responsible for the financial lines business in Switzerland. Prior to that, he was responsible at AIG Switzerland & Austria for industrial customers in the FL sector and has many years of consulting experience.
Dr. Cristian I. Duda has been a managing partner of Haefeli & Schroeder Financial Lines AG since 2021, responsible for the digital business division. He was previously the global lead for Digital Identity at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Prior to this he has been a manager at an international consulting firm driving projects at multinational companies. Cristian holds a PhD from ETH Zurich focused on Information and Data Management.
Nadja Fischer is Operations Executive at Haefeli & Schroeder Financial Lines AG. Nadja Fischer has many years of experience as Underwriting Assistant & Credit Control Expert at leading insurance companies specialized in Financial Lines such as Liberty.
Together with Markus Haefeli, Peter Schroeder is a founding partner of Haefeli & Schroeder Financial Lines AG. He previously headed the Financial Institutions team within the Financial Lines department at Zurich Insurance Company. Prior to that in his career of more than 22 years, Peter Schroeder held various management positions in the Financial Lines area, with technical and personnel responsibility for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He worked for AIG, Allianz, Liberty and Chubb, among others, occasionally in an international environment and with global underwriting responsibility.