This is the time of year when we consider retirements from and elections to our Council. Countries with 30 or more members are entitled to a reserved seat on Council and in October this year, vacancies will arise for the following seats: Germany, Italy, UK and Portugal. Therefore, members from these countries will have received an email requesting nominations for candidates from their country. 

In the meantime, one non-reserved seat vacancy on Council (which may be occupied by any country) will also become available. 

If you have not yet received email notification of the election process, please contact Membership Manager Hannah Denney.

To find out about the role of Council Members, please read the attached document.

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Executive Officers
At the close of the Copenhagen Congress in September, Alastair Beveridge (UK) became Immediate Past President and was replaced by Deputy President Piya Mukherjee (Denmark) as the new President. Vice President Marcel Groenewegen (Neths) became the new Deputy President and Frank Tschentscher (Germany) was duly appointed by Council as the new incoming Vice President. Chris Laughton (UK) agreed to remain on as Treasurer for one further year. Furthermore, Caroline Taylor (UK) Director of Administration announced her plans to remain in office for one further year with a view to continuing her assistance on the Secretariat on a part-time basis after that time.   

Council
Following the 2019 Council Election process, the following situation arose:

RESERVED SEATS

• Austria: Susanne Fruhstorfer preferred not to stand again for a 2nd 3-year term of office and was succeeded by Matthias Prior.
• Denmark: This is a new seat as Denmark now has over 30 members (the qualifying number for a reserved seat on Council). Michala Roepstorff was successful in the voting process and began her first 3-year term of office.
• Ireland: Barry Cahir retained his seat for a 2nd term office.
• Netherlands: Alice van der Schee (previously in a non-reserved seat) began her second 3-year term of office.
• Romania: Simona Milos preferred not to stand for a 2nd  3-year term and was  succeeded by  Vasile Godinca.
• Sweden: As numbers had dropped below 30, the reserved seat on Council was lost  
• Switzerland: Thomas Bauer retired after his 2nd 3-year term and was succeeded by Sabina Schellenberg who began her first 3-year term of office. 

NON RESERVED SEATS
David Rubin completed his 2nd 3-year term of office and Alice van der Schee had moved into the reserved seat for the Netherlands. The successors of those 2 seats were Evert Verwey (Neths) and Georges-Louis Harang (France). This year 2 new non reserved seats for countries not currently represented on Council were made available and duly taken by Jan Lilius (Finland) and Frank Heemann (Lithuania).  

Co-opted Seats:  
The following have been co-opted to Council:

• Radu Lotrean (in his capacity as EECC co-chair and for his work on the High Level Courses).
• Alberto Nunez Lagos (in his capacity as co-chair of the Turnaround Wing and co-chair of the Development Committee). 
• Steffen Koch (in his capacity as co-chair of the Turnaround Wing and the new Board member for INSOL International liaison).
• Tomas Richter (in his capacity as chair of the Academic Forum, succeeding Michael Veder).
• David Rubin (in his capacity as co-chair of the Sponsorship Committee).

Retirements:
Therefore, in view of the above, we say goodbye and thank you to the following people who now retire from Council:

• Hans Renman (Sweden)
• Susanne Fruhstorfer (Austria)
• Simona Milos (Romania)
• Thomas Bauer (Switzerland)
• Michael Veder (Netherlands)
• Catherine Ottaway (France) 
• Robert van Galen (Netherlands)

Honorary Members:
From time to time, the Council of INSOL Europe are entitled to confer honorary membership on any person who, in their opinion, has given outstanding meritorious service to the insolvency profession or who has performed outstanding work on behalf of the Association. This year honorary membership was awarded to Michael Veder who had been chair of the Academic Forum since 2016 and also Steffen Koch in his capacity as past President and co-chair of both the Turnaround Wing and Strategic Task Force 2025. Steffen also became the newly appointed INSOL Europe representative on the Board of INSOL International.  

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Executive Officers: At the close of the Athens Congress this month, Radu Lotrean (Romania)  stepped down as President to become Immediate Past President, Alastair Beveridge (UK) became the new President, Piya Mukherjee (Denmark)  became the new Deputy President and Marcel Groenewegen (Netherlands)  was elected by Council as incoming Vice President.

Chris Laughton (UK) remains as Treasurer and Caroline Taylor (UK) as Director of Administration.
 
Council: There were also several changes to the structure of Council. As a reminder, countries with 30 or more members are entitled to a reserved seat on Council and the following situation arose this year:

• A vacancy became available for Spain and France’s reserved seats as Vicente Estrade and Marc Senechal retired from Council.   
• Frank Tschentscher came to the end of his first 3 year term of office holding the reserved seat for Germany and agreed to stand for re-election against other nominations.
• Poland lost their reserved seat on Council as membership numbers fell below 30. 

Therefore, nominations from members in Spain, France and Germany were invited for candidates from their own country. Following the nomination and election process, Adrian Thery was duly elected to the reserved seat for Spain for his first 3 year term of office, Jean Baron to the reserved seat for France for his first 3 year term of office and Frank Tschentscher to the reserved seat for Germany for his second 3 year term of office.

One non-reserved seat vacancy on Council also became available (which may be occupied by any country) as Piya Mukherjee (Denmark) had been appointed as Vice President in the previous year.   2 nominations were received and following the election process, the successful candidate was Laurent Le Pajolec (representing Poland).    
 
Each year, Council may co-opt or re co-opt  a maximum of 8 members to Council and this year the following members were appointed: Michael Veder (Netherlands), as chair of the Academic Forum, Catherine Ottaway (France), as  representative of INSOL International and Constitution specialist, Wolf Waschkuhn (UK), as co-chair of  STF 2025, Steffen Koch (Germany)  as co-chair of the Turnaround Wing and co-chair of STF 2025, Evert Verwey (Netherlands), as co-chair of EECC, Robert van Galen (Netherlands), as EU co-chair and Brexit matters, Alberto Nunez-Lagos as co-chair of the Turnaround Wing  and our newcomer Georges-Louis Harang (France),  as co-chair of the Young Members Group. 
 
Honorary Membership for outstanding meritorious service on behalf of the Association was awarded to Heinz Vallender (Germany), chair of the Judicial Wing, who steps down after 13 years of service and also Alberto Nunez-Lagos (Spain), Past President and co-chair of the Turnaround Wing.
 
Secretariat: Wendy Cooper retired from the Secretariat and was duly thanked for her 11 years of service. Wendy will be missed by all colleagues and members who knew her during her time as INSOL Europe’s Membership and Conference Registrations Co-ordinator and we wish her well for the future. Going forward, recently appointed Event Manager, Harriet Taylor, will take charge of Conference Registrations and Hannah Denney will take charge of Membership, to become Sponsorship & Membership Manager

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Changes Elections Results, Changes and Retirements 

Executive Officers: At the close of the Warsaw Congress this month, Steffen Koch (Germany) stepped down as President to become Immediate Past President, Radu Lotrean (Romania) became the new President, Alastair Beveridge (UK)  became the new Deputy President and Piya Mukherjee (Denmark) was elected by Council as incoming Vice President.
 
After many years of excellent service as Council Member, past President, INSOL Europe’s representative on the INSOL International Board and more recently as Treasurer, Jim Luby (Ireland) stepped down from Council and was succeeded as Treasurer by Chris Laughton (UK).
 
Council: There were also several changes to the structure of Council. As a reminder, countries with 30 or more members are entitled to a reserved seat on Council and the following situation arose this year:

• A vacancy became available for the UK  reserved seat following the appointment of Alastair Beveridge  as Vice President last year. 
• In addition, the reserved seat for Italy became available when Antonio Tullio stepped down following his first  3 year term of office.

 
Therefore, nominations from members in the UK and Italy were invited for candidates from their own country. Following the nomination and election process, Frances Coulson was duly elected to the UK reserved seat and Giorgio Corno to the reserved seat for Italy, both having received the highest number of votes.

One non-reserved seat vacancy on Council also became available (which may be occupied by any country) as Martine Gerber (Luxembourg)  completed her maximum of 2 x  3 year terms of office. 4 nominations were eventually received and following a vote amongst the membership, the successful candidate was Rita Gismondi (Italy).  
 
Each year, Council may co-opt or re co-opt  a maximum of 8 members to Council and this year the following members were appointed: Sabina Schellenberg (Switzerland), Michael Veder (Netherlands), Catherine Ottaway (France), Ernst Giese (Czech Republic), Robert van Galen (Netherlands) Wolf Waschkuhn (UK), Alberto Nunez-Lagos (Spain)  and Evert Verwey (Netherlands).
 
Following many years of excellent service as Council Member for France,  Past President, co-chair of EECC and in more recent years co-opted member of Council, Marc André (France) stepped down from Council. 

Finally, Honorary Membership for outstanding meritorious service on behalf of the Association was awarded to Robert van Galen (Netherlands).

Members of the new Council at the Annual Congress in Warsaw*

From left to right standing: Robert van Galen (Neths), Caroline Taylor (UK), Marcel Groenewegen (Neths), Pawel Kuglarz (Poland), Frank Tschentscher (Germany), Rita Gismondi (Italy), Steffen Koch (Germany), Chris Laughton (UK), Marc Andre (France), Frances Coulson (UK), Giorgio Cornu (Italy), Alastair Beveridge (UK), Vicente Estrade (Spain), Thomas Bauer (Switzerland).
 
From left to right seated: Alice van der Schee (Neths), Sabina Schellenberg (Switzerland), Hans Renman (Sweden), Simona Milos (Romania), Wolf Waschkuhn (UK), Catherine Ottaway (France), Piya Mukherjee (Denmark), Radu Lotrean (Romania).

*Other members present: Marc Udink (Neths), Neil Cooper (UK), Jim Luby (Ireland),  Susanne Fruhstorfer (Austria) , Alberto Nunez-Lagos (Spain) and Marc Senechal (France).

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Changes to the executive officers, council retirements & results of the 2016 council elections

At the close of the Lisbon Congress this month, Alberto Nunez-Lagos (Spain) stepped down as President to become Immediate Past President, Steffen Koch (Germany) became the new President, Radu Lotrean (Romania) became the new Deputy President and Alastair Beveridge (UK) was elected by Council as the incoming Vice President. Jim Luby (Ireland) remained on for a further 1 year as Treasurer. 
 
There were also several changes to the structure of Council. As a reminder, countries with 30 or more members are entitled to a reserved seat on Council and the following situation arose this year.

• A vacancy became available for the Romanian reserved seat following the appointment of Radu Lotrean as Vice President last year. 
• Austria, having reached the required number of members was also entitled to a reserved seat on Council. 
• In addition, the reserved seats for Ireland and Sweden became available when William Day (Ireland) and Niklas Korling (Sweden) completed their second 3 year term in office.  
• So too did the reserved seats for the Netherlands and Switzerland although both Marcel Groenewegen (Neths) and Thomas Bauer (Switzerland) had only completed one 3 year term in office and agreed to stand again for election for a further 3 years.

Therefore, nominations from members in Romania, Austria, Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland were invited for candidates from their own country. Following the nomination and election process, Marcel Groenewegen and Thomas Bauer were uncontested and remained on Council for a further 3  years. Candidates Susanne Fruhstorfer (Austria), Barry Cahir (Ireland) and Simona-Maria Milos (Romania) were uncontested and duly elected to Council. However as 2 nominations had been received for Sweden, a vote took place amongst the Swedish membership and Hans Renman was duly elected having received the highest number of votes.

Two non-reserved seat vacancies on Council also became available (which may be occupied by any country) as Rocco Mulder (The Netherlands) and David Rubin (United Kingdom) also completed their first 3 year term in office. Both were eligible to stand again for re-election against other nominations although due to other commitments, Rocco Mulder opted out. 4 nominations were eventually received and following a vote amongst the membership, the two successful candidates were Alice van der Schee (Netherlands) and David Rubin (UK).  
 
Additionally, Carlos Mack (Italy) and Nigel Davies (UK) stepped down as co-opted members of Council and so too did Jim Luby (Ireland) since his appointment as Treasurer in the previous year. On the recommendation of the Executive Board, Ernst Giese (Czech Rep) and Robert Van Galen (Neths) were co-opted to Council for an initial one year term and previously co-opted members, being Marc Andre (France), Chris Laughton (UK), Sabina Schellenberg (Switzerland), Michael Veder (Netherlands) and Catherine Ottaway (France) were also reappointed for a further one year term.

Finally, Honorary Membership for outstanding meritorious service on behalf of the Association was awarded to Catherine Ottaway (France) and David Rubin (UK).