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Members of the Board of Directors

Andreas Berger
Master's degree in Law
Master's degree in Business Administration
Chairman to the Board of Directors
Andreas Berger
Chief Executive Officer, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

Matthias Grass
Masters in Finance
Masters in Science in Business Administration
Member of the Board of Directors
Matthias Grass
Chief Financial Officer, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

Réjean Besner
Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries
Member of the Board of Directors
Réjean Besner
Chief Risk Officer, Swiss Re Life Capital

Julien Descombes
Graduated in Mathematics / Actuarial Science
Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA)
Member of the Board of Directors
Julien Descombes
Chief Executive Officer Life Capital Ad Interim
Members of the Executive Team

Christoph Gaus
Group CEO
Christoph Gaus
Christoph Gaus has more than 20 years’ experience in the international insurance sector. He possesses outstanding leadership skills and a great deal of experience in a variety of areas, including project and product management, sales and marketing. Prior to joining elipsLife, Christoph spent five years at Zurich Insurance Group, where he was employed as Head of Retail Management and was also a member of the management board for the group’s Swiss business unit.
He holds a Master in Economics, with a focus on Business Information Technology and Information Management, and this extensive theoretical knowledge is complemented by years of practical expertise gleaned from business, process and technology transformation projects.
Christoph has been CEO elipsLife since October 2019. He was previously CEO Europe from June 2018.

Albert Bakker
CEO North & South Europe
Albert Bakker
Albert Bakker is responsible for the elipsLife Benelux organization. He has worked in the Dutch insurance industry for over 22 years. In the initial 9 years he worked as COO in one of the leading insurance companies, SNS Reaal. In the last 13 years he was CEO of several Dutch and international insurance companies, a.o. the pension Division of Achmea.
Albert studied Business Economics at the University of Rotterdam, followed by a post MBA in Accountancy. After working for 3 years as an auditor he held various Finance functions, before stepping into the insurance world. He joined elipsLife in 2017, the moment elipsLife changed to a country organization. As CEO Benelux he is responsible for both the Dutch and Belgian market.

Patricia Mattle
CEO Central Europe
Patricia Mattle
Patricia Mattle has over 10 years of experience in the insurance sector and is a recognised expert in the employee benefits field. Patricia has held a variety of roles in the areas of employee benefits and pension funds, and has spent time working in the US and France, all of which has allowed her to develop a broad range of skills and international experience in life and health insurance.
In her most recent role before joining elipsLife, Patricia spent two years in the Pensions department at AXA Switzerland as Head of Autonomous Market Group Life.
Patricia holds an MA in Marketing, Services and Communication Management from the University of St.Gallen (HSG).
She has been responsible for Central Europe and CEO Switzerland/Liechtenstein at elipsLife since April 2020.

Wouter Moritz
Chief Financial Officer
Wouter Moritz
Wouter Moritz has 17 years of experience in the insurance industry where he has worked in various finance roles such as international finance business partner and country CFO. Wouter Moritz brings a wide range of experience and comprehensive skill set in the area of financial planning, analysis, accounting and external reporting.
After joining elipsLife in 2015, he continuously built up the finance function in all countries. Lastly he was Head Financial Planning & Analysis and interim CFO at elipsLife.
Wouter studied Business Economics at the Amsterdam University and started his career as an auditor.
As of April 2020 Wouter Moritz is CFO of elipsLife.

Claude Schwarz
Chief Underwriting Officer
Claude Schwarz
Claude Schwarz holds a PhD in Physics from ETH Zurich and is a qualified Swiss Actuary. He spent 22 years in pricing, product development, actuarial tool development, business steering and actuarial governance of Life & Health reinsurance at Swiss Re. During that time Claude spent two years with L&H Product Management in the UK and he was also seconded to Munich for over three years to head the L&H Product Hub, looking after the L&H business in Germany, Eastern and Northern Europe.
Claude Schwarz joined elipsLife in 2017 as Global Head Pricing and Actuarial Services and assumes the role of Chief Underwriting Officer since April 2020.

Ettore Franzolin
Chief Risk Officer*
Ettore Franzolin
Ettore Franzolin holds a PhD in Geochemistry and Petrology from ETH Zurich. He started his career as Pricing Actuary in Corporate Solutions and over the last 10 years, has held various roles in Risk Management at Swiss Re. Ettore has built his experience in a wide range of global topics including capital, risk tolerance, governance, assurance and operational risk management. He led Swiss Re’s Group Risks & Analytics Risk Steering Team for four years and went on to become Head Global Risk Management at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in 2019. In addition, Ettore Franzolin joined elipsLife as Chief Risk Officer in 2021.
*subject to regulatory approval

Kaspar Weiss
Chief Technology Officer
Kaspar Weiss
With Kaspar Weiss, elipsLife has found a highly qualified IT specialist with many years of experience to take over responsibility for the company's Information Technology department. From 2001 to 2005, Kaspar Weiss worked for Sunrise as Customer Care Director and Head Technical Support. From 2005 to 2009, he worked for British Telecom as International Head of Services Operations in charge of customer support and network operations in large parts of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. From 2009 until most recently, Kaspar Weiss worked for Swisscom Switzerland Ltd as Head of Service Center & Assurance, in which position he was responsible for ensuring the availability and quality of all Swisscom's networks and IT applications.
Kaspar Weiss is in charge of elipsLife's Information Technology department as of March 2013.
Country CEOs

Albert Bakker
CEO North & South Europe
Albert Bakker
Albert Bakker is responsible for the elipsLife Benelux organization. He has worked in the Dutch insurance industry for over 22 years. In the initial 9 years he worked as COO in one of the leading insurance companies, SNS Reaal. In the last 13 years he was CEO of several Dutch and international insurance companies, a.o. the pension Division of Achmea.
Albert studied Business Economics at the University of Rotterdam, followed by a post MBA in Accountancy. After working for 3 years as an auditor he held various Finance functions, before stepping into the insurance world. He joined elipsLife in 2017, the moment elipsLife changed to a country organization. As CEO Benelux he is responsible for both the Dutch and Belgian market.

Patricia Mattle
CEO Central Europe
Patricia Mattle
Patricia Mattle has over 10 years of experience in the insurance sector and is a recognised expert in the employee benefits field. Patricia has held a variety of roles in the areas of employee benefits and pension funds, and has spent time working in the US and France, all of which has allowed her to develop a broad range of skills and international experience in life and health insurance.
In her most recent role before joining elipsLife, Patricia spent two years in the Pensions department at AXA Switzerland as Head of Autonomous Market Group Life.
Patricia holds an MA in Marketing, Services and Communication Management from the University of St.Gallen (HSG).
She has been responsible for Central Europe and CEO Switzerland/Liechtenstein at elipsLife since April 2020.

Lucas Müller
CEO Germany and Austria
Lucas Müller
Lucas Müller is responsible for elipsLife Germany. In his role as country CEO he has the challenge to raise local needs and to develop a new German market for biometric risk insurance. For more than 10 years he has been working in the area of biometric Group insurance solutions in connection with private pension provision.
Following his masters degree in economics from the university of Fribourg, Switzerland, he successfully completed the Swiss Re Graduates Programme. After a short stint with a Swiss health insurance company, he joined elipsLife in 2011 where he was Head Sales Switzerland/Liechtenstein and responsible for building up the Swiss distribution department. He has been CEO of the German branch of elipsLife since May 2017, and CEO of the Austrian branch since July 2020.

Pierluigi Verderosa
CEO Italy
Pierluigi Verderosa
Pierluigi Verderosa joined elipsLife in January 2020 as CEO Italy, responsible for the overall business development and operations in the Italian market. He has more than 30 years’ experience in Italian insurance industry. In his many different roles he worked in marketing and sales with agents and financial advisors channels, technical departments in Property & Casualty as well as Life. In addition lead more than 250 people and was also head of operations. As General Manager of Cardif BNPP’s Italian subsidiary, Pierluigi launched a new business unit for managing the Italian insurance of salary and pension granted loans. With this initiative Cardif become market leader in Italy.
He holds a degree in Management & Economics from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy.
International presence
elipsLife operates in Europe and the US. In Europe, elipsLife has a market presence in Switzerland (Zurich), Liechtenstein (Vaduz), Benelux (Hoofddorp), Germany (Cologne), Italy (Milan), and Ireland (Dublin). In accordance with the principle of freedom to provide services, elipsLife also operates in Belgium. We serve the US market out of Schaumburg, Illinois.

Organizational chart
