The German-Irish Chamber welcomes you to our next webinar where we are delighted to announce that we have secured Chief Economist from the German Central Bank, Jens Ulbrich and Chief Economist from the Irish Central Bank, Mark Cassidy as key guest speakers. 
 
As a kick off to the European Presidency on the 1st July where Germany will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union we think the timing of this webinar will be very interesting.

Dr.Jens Ulbrich will focus on the perspectives of the German economy, report about their latest forecast policy measures undertaken by the government. He will also discuss the monetary policy response at the Eurosystem.

Dr.Mark Cassidy will go through some of the content of The Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin published 3 July including growth in household deposits in April which is the largest on record. He will also talk about the Implications from a likely hard Brexit on the already negative Covid-19 shock.
 

Webinar agenda (10am – 11.00am)

• Greetings from Ralf Lissek, CEO German-Irish Chamber
• Welcome from H.E. Ms. Deike Potzel Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ireland'
• Moderator Declan Bolger, CEO Irish life Insurance Group and councillor of the German-Irish Chamber of Industry & Commerce
• Dr.Jens Ulbrich, Chief Economist at the Bundesbank
• Dr.Mark Cassidy, Chief Economist at the Central Bank of Ireland
• Q&A session - Declan Bolger, CEO Irish life Insurance Group and councillor of the German-Irish Chamber of Industry & Commerce
• Webinar closed by Werner Schwanberg, Chairman of the German-Irish European Financial Services Committee

Speaker

Dr.Jens Ulbrich - Head of the Economics Department at the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt.
Mr Ulbrich is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the European System of Central Banks. Before joining the Bundesbank he worked for Dresdner Bank, the German Chancellery and the German Council of Economic Experts.

Dr.Mark Cassidy - Director of Economics and Statistics at the Central Bank of Ireland.
In this role he has responsibility for the Irish Economic Analysis, Monetary Policy and Statistics functions. He is also the Chair of the Bank’s Brexit Task Force. Prior to his appointment Mark was Head of Financial Stability and has also been Head of Monetary Policy and International Relations.  In the latter role, he was the Bank’s central liaison point for programme oversight and monitoring in Ireland’s EU-IMF programme.
Mark has represented the Central Bank on a range of Eurosystem and international committees including the ECB’s Financial Stability Committee, the Monetary Policy Committee, the International Relations Committee, Banking Supervision Committee and the Advisory Technical Committee of the ESRB. He holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.

H.E. Ms. Deike Potzel - Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ireland'
Her Excellency Mrs. Deike Potzel has been the German Ambassador to Ireland since December 2017. Previously, she held several positions in the Foreign Ministry in Berlin such as Deputy Director General of Central Services. She also served as  Head of the Personal Office of former Federal President Joachim Gauck. She was posted to the German Embassies in Tehran/Iran and Singapore.
She studied English and French Language and Literature at Humboldt University in Berlin and was at the Foreign Service Academy of the Federal Foreign Ministry in Bonn from 1993-1995

Declan Bolger - Chief Executive Officer, Irish Life
Declan Bolger was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Irish Life Group in February 2020. Prior to this, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Life Assurance Europe plc (Canada Life Europe). He was appointed in 2009 and in that role led the company’s German business.
 
Declan joined Canada Life in 1997 and was part of the founding team responsible for the launch of Canada Life into the German market in 2000. He has held a number of senior positions in the Product Development, Finance and Actuarial areas of the company including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary of Canada Life Assurance Europe Limited. Under Declan’s leadership, Canada Life Europe, through strategic investments in innovative products and technology, more than doubled in size to become one of the leading companies in the German broker market.
 
Declan is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (UK) and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland. He sits on the Board of Financial Services Ireland and Insurance Ireland’s International Council.

Werner Schwanberg - Chairman of the German-Irish European Financial Services Committee
Werner Schwanberg was born in Germany in 1955. He is married and has three adult children. He is a Chartered Director (IOD London) and holds a Diploma in Corporate Governance from UCD. Werner has lived and worked in Ireland since 1991 and is a former CEO of Dresdner Bank Ireland plc and WGZ BANK Ireland plc. He holds non-executive directorships on several Irish Fund Companies and acts as an advisor on Corporate Governance through his firm ‘Schwanberg  Financial Governance Services (SFGS)’. He is also a counciller and former President of the German Irish Chamber of industry and Commerce and a member of the Irish Fund Directors Association (IFDA) and the Institute of Directors in London and Dublin.