Leaseurope names new board of directors and sums up 2020 market

• Tim Albertsen, group CEO, ALD Automotive
• Marcin Balicki, president of the management board, Millennium Leasing/Banco Commercial Português Group
• Patrick Beselaere, global head, ING Lease – Europe
• José Coronel de Palma y Martínez-Agulló, president and managing director, Caterpillar Financial
• Christine Delamarre, CEO, Auxifip and Unifergie, Credit Agricole Leasing and Factoring
• Peter Hupfeld, CEO, Nordea Finance
• Massimo Macciocchi, business leader for leasing, Banca Ifis
• Philippe Mellier, CEO, Fraikin Group
• John Phillipou, managing director, SME lending, Paragon Bank
• Khaled Shahbo, senior vice president, MD UK and Ireland, Enterprise Rent-A-Car
• Alexander Schmidecker, CEO, Raiffeisen Leasing
• Hubert Spechtenhauser, member of the management board, UniCredit Leasing Germany

Patrick Beselaere (pictured above), Alexander Schmidecker and Khaled Shahbo have been named chair and vice-chairs respectively.

The organization has also published a market overview and outlook for 2020, in which it highlighted that total leasing volumes in the first half of 2020 were down 24.1% to €125.6 billion, while vehicle and equipment leasing fell by 27.8% and 17.1%, respectively.

It suggested lessors had responded to the economic effects of pandemic by lowering costs and taking conservative positions on loan loss provisions.

It said the end of 2020 and 2021 were “subject to an extremely high degree of uncertainty and risks surrounding demand, weighting on investment decisions, as well as very much dependant on the EU determination to roll out its landmark recovery package to chart the course to economic recovery.”

During the new board’s first meeting, chair Beselaere, said: “This has been an unprecedented year for everyone, upending life as we knew it and ushering in change of a magnitude not seen before in our lifetimes. At Leaseurope, this has meant adapting to teleworking and a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, while ensuring that our core priorities are still covered.

“Our focus for 2020 was on overhauling and modernising our communication and we did not let Covid-19 slow us down in this area, launching a new website and a modernised newsletter. On the advocacy front, we significantly elevated our engagement with European regulators at the highest level, including ensuring our industry is included in support mechanisms to alleviate the impact of Covid-19.

“This was no easy feat, and I am grateful to my colleagues on the Board, the Secretariat, the Secretaries General and our member associations for their dedication and hard work. Moving into 2021 the future is still not clear, however, I am confident that the Federation is stronger than ever before and in a position to rise to new heights going forward.”