About Us
Board
Board of Directors
- Michel Akkermans (Chairman of the Board)
- Deborah Bernstein
- Jürgen Ingels
- Luc Maruenda
- Jeffrey P. Neubert
- Mark Rodrigues
- Barend Van den Brande
Board Observers
Michel Akkermans is Chairman and CEO of Clear2Pay, an innovative e-finance company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely electronic payments. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, with offices in the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, China, Singapore and Australia, the company's focus is to facilitate banks and financial organisations in their provision of electronic payments services.
A proven pioneer in the world of e-finance, in 1989 Michel founded FICS, a leading software provider in the field of online banking and regulatory financial reporting. Under his leadership as Chairman and CEO, FICS grew to employ over 700 employees worldwide and achieved revenues in excess of USD 70 million. In 1999 FICS, together with Edify and Vertical One, merged with Security First Technologies, creating the market leader in Internet banking - S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE), with Michel as its Chairman. Michel and his team brought S1 over 600 clients and the ability to deliver across a wide range of alternative distribution channels and devices, including the Internet, wireless, PDAs, and electronic purses.
Michel holds an M.Sc. in electronic engineering and computer sciences and a degree in economics & finance from the University of Leuven in Belgium. Prior to founding FICS, Michel held management positions at a series of international banks, including Morgan Guaranty Trust and Continental Bank, and subsequently for international consulting companies. A visionary in new financial dynamics, Michel is a frequent keynote speaker at industry-led events.
In addition to his chief executive role at Clear2Pay, Michel is advisor at the venture capital fund Gimv, and holds board positions at a number of companies, including Approach, an ICT services provider, the listed “privak” Quest for Growth, a Belgium private equity investment fund, at Vanbreda International, a services company active in the area of brokerage, risk management, consultancy and specialised in the field of international employee benefits, and also at Agfa-Gevaert since April 2008. He was also a former director of Euronext listed Gemplus (now Gemalto), Capco and US based Proficient.
Ms. Bernstein has worked in the financial services industry since 1993. Prior to joining Aquiline in 2008, Ms. Bernstein was a general partner (2001-2008) at Pequot Ventures, the former direct venture investment arm of Pequot Capital Management, Inc., where she led the firm’s investment efforts in financial services technology. She also helped launch its West Coast office. Prior to that (1999-2001), she was a principal at Thomas Weisel Capital Partners L.P., where she was responsible for the firm’s various technology investments, including several in financial services. Previously, she was an associate (1997-1999) and financial analyst (1993-1995) in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ms. Bernstein serves on the board of directors of Lighthouse International.
She graduated from Dartmouth College with an A.B. in economics and earned her M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jürgen Ingels is the inventor of the Clear2Pay platform, and founded the company, together with Michel Akkermans. Before founding Clear2Pay, Mr. Ingels worked as Senior Investment Manager with Dexia Ventures, the venture capital division of Dexia Bank, Belgium's largest commercial bank. Mr. Ingels's role at Dexia Bank was focused on investing in start-up companies, and taking a pro-active role in their business strategy, product launches and financial management. He represented Dexia Ventures on the boards of numerous companies, including Metris NV (BE), Equipnet direct.com ( US), Smartenergy (US), Xenics NV (BE), Q-star NV (BE), and Red laboratories (BE). He is currently member of the board at Enqio NV, Zappware NV and Citymesch NV.
Mr. Ingels holds a degree in political and social sciences, and an MBA from the University of Antwerp. He also has a postgraduate degree in corporate finance.
Luc Maruenda brings with him over 16 years of experience in private equity. Since 1999 he has been Managing Director and Partner of AGF Private Equity, one of the most active french investors in venture capital with more than 500 M€ under management. During this time he has directly managed investments in a large portfolio of information technology companies including Lea (DSL Spliters), PS Soft, Grid Expert, United Device, Sefas innovation, Meilleure Gestion, Clear2Pay (enterprise sofware), Crocus Technology (semi-conductor), Groupe Bernard Julhiet, Cosmosbay (services).
Prior to AGF Private Equity, Luc has spent 5 years in Abu Dhabi working in a large private equity program sponsored by the UAE government directed to the infrastructure and services sectors.
Before, Luc spent 3 years in New York as an audit manager at Cabinet Constantin (part of Deloitte) and 2 years as CFO of a technology start up company (Webcorp) in San Francisco.
Luc graduated from Nantes University, he holds a master in business law and a master in finance.
Mr. Neubert has over 35 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, he was the Chief Executive Officer of The Clearing House, the largest private sector processor of U.S. dollar wire, Automated Clearing House and electronic check payments. Before joining The Clearing House, Mr. Neubert held senior executive positions with Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase) and Citigroup, overseeing retail banking, credit card, mortgage, and transaction processing units among his varied and broad responsibilities with those firms.
Mr. Neubert holds a B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Babson College.
Mr. Rodrigues has worked in the financial services industry since 1983. Prior to joining Aquiline in 2008, Mr. Rodrigues was a managing director at Oliver Wyman (2001-2008), where he was the founder and global head of the Strategic Information Technology and Operations Practice and a member of the Management Committee. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, he was with American Management Systems (1992-2001), where he was a member of the Executive Committee and ran the Financial Services Group. Previously, Mr. Rodrigues was a principal of Safeguard Scientifics (1988-1991). He also worked at Wang Laboratories (1983-1986) as the New York Branch Manager, Financial Institutions, and at IBM Corporation (1981-1983) as a New York marketing representative.
Mr. Rodrigues has a B.A. from Yale College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Barend Van de Brande founded Big Bang Ventures in 2000. As Managing Partner, Barend oversees all aspects of fund and investment management.
He currently serves on the board of directors of Clear2Pay, Mobiluck, Wakoopa, Travel Intelligence Group and MMOlife. He was a director on the board of DCT (acquired by Symantec) and Dedigate (acquired by Terremark Inc.)
Previously, Barend co-founded SwiftTouch (US). He began his career in as a Financial Analyst for SG Cowen in Boston, Massachusetts, focusing on Internet and data-networking companies.
Barend was president of the Benelux Tech Tour 2006.
Erkan Kilicaslan is a Partner with Iris Capital since 2005 and is responsible for international investments in the IT, communications and media industry. He joined from TecVenture Partners, a Munich based Venture Capital fund where he focused on IT investments and worked as a supervisory board member of numerous technology companies on issues around M&A, strategic positioning and technology growth management.
Previously, he was an Investment Manager at Technologieholding VC (now 3i Group) in Munich and a Consultant at McKinsey & Company on corporate finance and technology projects. In addition, he has worked with Schlumberger Technologies in their Smart Card division in Paris as Ingénieur d’Affaires for Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Erkan Kilicaslan has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Electronique et de Radioélectricité de Bordeaux (ENSERB) and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School (Boston).
Stephane Goubau is Senior Director of Intel Capital and is currently leading the WiMAX venture investment program in EMEA as well as being responsible for Intel Capital’s investments in the emerging Middle East, Turkey and African region. He pursued investments in DBD (Deutsche Breitband Dienste), Pipex Wireless, Worldmax, Orascom Telecom WiMax Ltd, SNO, Medialario, Clear2pay and NetCentrex.
Previously, Stephane Goubau served as Managing Director for Intel Capital Western Europe and lead a number of additional investment programs in the region such as Digital Home and Telecom Infrastructure.
Prior to assuming his responsibilities within Intel Capital, Mr. Goubau was Vice President of Dialogic Corporation and Managing Director of Dialogic’s EMEA activities for 7 years, until the company was acquired by Intel Corporation.
Prior to that, Stephane Goubau held several general management and senior management positions in startup ventures as well as larger corporations including Eyemetrics, Société Générale of Belgium & Raychem Corporation.
Stephane Goubau holds an MBA from Harvard University (USA) and a Master in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ghent ( Belgium).