Delano February 2021

No. 75

FEBRUARY 2021

Luxembourg in English

ChloĂŠ Reuter: China girl The Shanghai-based Luxembourg entrepreneur advocating luxury brands in the middle kingdom

Randy Evans: US ambassador says farewell Paulette Lenert: lessons from the pandemic Autofestival: shopping for a new ride Sovereign investing: time to go green 5 453000 010015 75 â‚Ź4

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Reasons to be cheerful… 1, 2, 3 The timing of this publication could hardly be any better, or worse if you are charged with writing this column. We publish on the day that the 46th president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, are officially inaugurated. This should be a time for optimism, a first shoot of renewal after what has been a truly awful 2020.

But given the horrific events at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on 6 January, and the maelstrom of subsequent threats to democracy unleashed by far-right terrorists on social media, many of them purporting to be supporters of Donald Trump, we cannot be sure that optimism will have been justified.

New variants of the coronavirus have also thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. So, are there any reasons to be cheerful about the broad outlook for 2021? Well, I think we can find some.

Vaccine roll-out has started and although criticism has been aimed at the compromises made by the EU procurement scheme, as health minister Paulette Lenert says in conversation in this edition, six months ago we were still unsure when the first vaccine would even be approved and ready for distribution.

1

tax seems likely--but the new president has been described as a staunch transatlanticist and we should see a rebuilding of America’s soft power around the world, not just in Europe. Working together, or at least pulling in the same direction, on critical issues such as climate change and security will provide renewed hope.

In Luxembourg, the crisis has shown that the grand duchy enjoys at least some sort of economic resilience. Public investment will increase again in 2021 and employment should bounce back. It is imperative, as much for our own social wellbeing as for the survival of affected businesses, that the long-suffering hospitality sector is allowed to reopen as soon as possible.

3

So, as you peruse this new format of Delano, which will now be published on a regular monthly schedule, we hope that you take on board some of what the people we have interviewed have to say about how they survived and even thrived in 2020 and their outlook for the coming 12 months. After all, “a bit of grin and bear it,” as Ian Dury puts it in his song ‘Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt. 3’, can go a long way.

2

There is genuine hope that the Biden administration will reset transatlantic relations and put an end to the niggly sort of tit-for-tat combativeness that his predecessor so seemed to enjoy. This may not result immediately in any great economic advantages--and a clash over digital services

Editor-in-chief DUNCAN ROBERTS

3

FEBRUARY 2021

Editorial #ANewYear

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© 2021 PricewaterhouseCoopers, Société coopérative. All rights reserved.

In this document, “PwC” or “PwC Luxembourg” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate legal entity. PwC IL cannot be held liable in any way for the acts or omissions of its member firms.

Contents February 2021

5

Get your car search into gear

06 #POLITICS - RANDY EVANS

“We’ve gotten a lot of good stuff done” –

38 Head to head

08 #BUSINESS - WILLEM BUITELAAR

JOHN MARSHALL VS NICOLAS MACKEL

“Appropriate for use during the pandemic” –

10 #CULTURE - CATHERINE DECKER

p.20 Paulette Lenert on managing the covid-19 crisis

“Luxembourg’s art scene has a lot to say” 12 Dashboard

Luxembourg fund assets, consumer confidence and workforce profile

The post-Brexit relationship 40 Essay

Pushing for green sovereign wealth Conversations 14 BUSINESS - CHLOÉ REUTER

“There’s some great creativity coming out of China” –

20 POLITICS - PAULETTE LENERT

“Have scenarios ready to be deployed when it gets tough”

44 Gusto

Cooking classes

46 Business club 50 Pick’n’mix

On the road with five drivers

–

28 CULTURE - LARISA FABER

“Why not go out of your comfort one ”

Photos

Graeme Kennedy, Mike Zenari

p.14 Chloé Reuter on Western luxury brands in China

p. 28 Larisa Faber on her edgy play

FEBRUARY 2021

30 Business report

Ristretto

Ristretto #Politics

FEBRUARY 2021

6

“We’ve gotten a lot of good stuff done” After just two-and-a-half years, outgoing US ambassador to Luxembourg Randy Evans can look back on a list of landmark agreements with Luxembourg.

[This interview was conducted before the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.]

When you arrived in Luxembourg in the summer of 2018, you said one of the challenges you were most looking forward to was deepening cooperation in the space sector. You certainly met that challenge with the signing of the memorandum of understanding on space and the Artemis Accords.

And then the Nasa contract to buy rock from [Luxembourg company] Ispace to complete it.

We’ve gone from the concept phase to the project phase, but to go to the money phase…

The real measure, to me, of something like that is ‘can you sell your product?’.

The US presidential elections also took place during your tenure. Talking to Luxembourgers, how do you think they understood the nuances of the political scene in the States?

I’m not sure that they do. But I’m not sure that I fully understand Luxembourg’s electoral process. The biggest difference… is our system is designed to be grossly inefficient. Because the thing that Americans fear the most is the accumulation of power. So, we’re not going to have a Napoleon, we’re not going to have a Mussolini… Even though you may be the president, you still got to deal with the Supreme Court, with the speaker, and you still got to deal with the senate and all 50 state governors.

Whereas here, even though you have a government that consists of a coalition of three parties, I would argue that the prime minister’s as powerful as anybody in the country, if not the most powerful person in the country.

Then you also signed an MoU for the Warehouse Service Agency…

Yeah, it is such a good agreement. And if you look at the list, it is like three pages long.

We had the ratification of the double tax treaty [amending the convention in both jurisdictions]. I think that thing had been pending for over a decade, but [finance minister] Pierre Gramegna and I go shake the tree and then get the protocols done and get them implemented.

And then you have things like the bus route to the [US military] cemetery. Most people thought that I was only looking out for the cemetery.

The fact is, I was trying to get tourists--126,000 tourists a year in a non-covid year--to downtown Luxembourg, just to shop. And I was getting shoppers out to the cemetery. So, it was a win-win.

I asked a group of people the other day what stood out to them most, and everybody said it was the pace of getting things done. We’ve gotten a lot of good stuff done. As I put it in a piece for Amcham, Luxembourg is just a well-kept secret.

What particular moment stood out for you?

The 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge with heads of state from all over Europe was huge. Buzz Aldrin… I still get goosebumps when I think that he was sitting around the residence talking about walking on the moon. If the question is what was the most fun? It would have to be the Thanksgiving [Battle of the Bulge] re-enactment when I climbed up and got into the tank. The grand duke probably thought I was crazy at that point.

So, what’s next when you return to the States?

There are no concrete plans. There are a lot of firms who would like me to come back practice law. There are a number of both law schools and universities whose public policy groups have reached out and said, “don’t you want to teach?”. Fox has been very generous in asking me to do a television programme. And then Linda [the ambassador’s wife] says, “why don’t we just retire and go to Florida?”. I think I just need a break… maybe a month sabbatical.

Randy Evans, an attorney, previously advised the House of Representatives speaker and was appointed ambassador

by Donald Trump

But politics is not tempting you?

It’s possible. I can run for office, I could see it.

It’s not anything that I have an immediate passion for.

Interview DUNCAN ROBERTS Photo MATIC ZORMAN

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Ristretto #Business

FEBRUARY 2021

8

“Appropriate for use during the pandemic” The US chemicals firm Dupont de Nemours manufactures Tyvek, used to make protective garments for medical staff, at just two sites worldwide.

As Dupont’s Willem Buitelaar explains, one of them is in Luxembourg.

Put simply, what is Tyvek, and what is it used for?

[Laughs] It’s a very simple question and it would require some time [to explain the chemistry, but] let’s start with the applications. In the time of the pandemic, Tyvek has become very known for its protective characteristics as material for personal protection equipment. So the coveralls [worn by health workers]... you can’t tear it apart.

And that is one of the strong characteristics.

The other one is that it is breathable, but it doesn’t allow moisture to get into it. And that is something that makes it very appropriate for use during the pandemic, because viruses and bacteria can’t get in, and the people who are wearing the suits, their bodies can breathe, so it shouldn’t be too cumbersome to use those garments for a while.

either live in France or in Germany. And, well, they had their issues at the borders, to come through.

So it initially took them hours to either get to the plant or get home after work. And that has improved a lot, of course, but initially, that was one of the challenges that we had to face.

They weren’t considered essential workers then?

Yes, they were. [But] that needed to be checked at the borders. And there were more essential workers than just only those from Dupont, and so that took a while. But that’s now all okay. And people do have their letter that they can show when they [commute] because now, we have the curfew... as I said, 24/7 operations, so even after the moment that a curfew [takes effect], people need to be on the streets to get home or to come to the plant.

And is Tyvek used in face masks?

It’s [used for] coveralls. So the white material which you see in pictures, in the coveralls, that is Tyvek... [another use], which is a very important one, is to protect medical equipment, syringes, scissors, whatever operational material that is needed.

Are you currently operating at maximum capacity?

Yes.

Where else does Dupont produce Tyvek?

There’s another plant in Spruance, in the United States, and basically that is [our] sister plant.

Do you plan to expand your production lines?

Well, there’s one additional production line that we are constructing at the moment, Tyvek line eight.... we expect [it] to start running sometime in 2022.

We’re talking in January, but you told me in a previous conversation, last April, that the two plants were supplying Tyvek material that could make 9 million protective garments per month. Is that still the case?

That’s still the case.

You produce Tyvek 24/7.

Has that been difficult to maintain?

That was a challenge in the sense that, in the early days of the pandemic, we needed our operators to come to the site and with all the restrictions for travel, it took them sometimes hours to get to the plant, instead of just their ordinary journey to get to the Luxembourg site, because of [mobility] restrictions. We have quite a few people working on our sites who

Willem Buitelaar works on the corporate communications and government relations team for Dupont sites in Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands

How do your employees feel about the past year?

What we see in the Tyvek plant, but also in other plants, in the Hytrel manufacturing unit, for example, they produce material for [the] tubes inside the respirator machines, or Dupont Teijin Films, manufacturing polyester films, which are used for face shields... so, each and every manufacturing unit on our site somehow supports the fight against the pandemic, and people are proud of that.

Interview AARON GRUNWALD Photo ROMAIN GAMBA

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Ristretto #Culture

FEBRUARY 2021

10

“Luxembourg’s art scene has a lot to say” Arts council Kultur:LX is the new kid on the block in Luxembourg’s culture scene. Catherine Decker, president of the board of directors, helped set up the organisation and says it will strengthen the country’s artistic ecosystem.

What was the motivation behind founding Kultur:LX? An organisation like Kultur:LX has been a longstanding demand from the culture sector.

It dates from the time when groups like Luxembourg for Finance or Luxembourg for Tourism were founded. It is an arts council to support the sector nationally, to facilitate the exchange of Luxembourg artists with other countries and to take their art abroad. Kultur:LX is convinced that Luxembourg’s art scene has a lot to say.

The idea forms part of the culture development plan and the government’s 2018-2023 programme.

Why is this organisation so important for the sector?

There is a lot of cultural activity and there are a number of support mechanisms.

But Kultur:LX provides a global framework. The idea is to strengthen and expand the ecosystem within which artists work. What does it take for artists to succeed? The support to artists themselves and the professions around them needs to be strengthened and considered as a whole. It’s about looking at the specific needs of each discipline but also looking for bridges and synergies, taking a more systematic and systemic approach.

How will you work with the organisations already out there?

It’s foreseen to bring efforts of various organisations together. One of the first big steps, for example, is to integrate Music:LX. Initiatives like Reading Luxembourg will follow.

Their work will continue and expand under the Kultur:LX umbrella, which supports artists in literature, music, drama, visual arts, architecture, design and digital art.

Each sector will have a person in charge and be accompanied by a committee Catherine Decker cannot imagine living without culture in her including representatives from the spelife. In her post as president of cific sectors. It is our hope that Kultur:LX will Kultur:LX, she helps strengthen grow hand in hand with the cultural scene.

Luxembourg’s art scene.

In November 2019, Kultur:LX appointed a national and an international coordinator.

Why this split?

We had advertised one position and didn’t actually expect this outcome. But during the discussions, we realised the complexity of the mission. We were confronted with two excellent candidates [Diane Tobes and Valérie Quilez, respectively] who could offer different scopes of expertise.

The missions of both coordinators and their backgrounds are complementary.

How has the pandemic affected the project?

The first six months after the foundation were mostly used to set up the organisation from a legal and administrative point of view. The pandemic did not impact the agenda of the organisation as such.

However, we are well aware that artists were hit extremely hard. 2020 and 2021 will provide the opportunity to reflect on what makes sense, where Kultur:LX can help the most. The national and international coordinators start in their posts on 1 February and we’re ready to roll out the first initiatives.

Lockdown has also shown how important culture is…

I couldn’t live without it. We consume culture every day. It’s what shapes us, our lives, our thoughts, our character. It’s extremely important.

To do this as a profession is a courageous choice and one that I admire a lot. Studies have shown that culture offers resilience, community and also hope in times of crisis.

What will be your role in future?

The board of directors’ mission is very clear--to set up the organisation. Like a regular board, we will oversee budgets, human resources and general guidelines for its programme. In parallel, we are working on a legal basis for Kultur:LX to move from ‘ASBL’ to proper ‘établissement public’.

Interview CORDULA SCHNUER Photo ROMAIN GAMBA

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Dashboard #Economics

12

322

LUXEMBOURG FUND ASSETS Total net assets in Luxembourg-domiciled investment funds increased by 4.56% between November 2019 and November 2020*.

Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF) *Figures for the last day of each month.

Luxflag labelled responsible funds at the end of 2020

€5trn

Source €4trn €3trn €2trn €1trn 0 Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov 2019 2019 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020

8.7%

Energy use in Luxembourg from renewable sources in 2019. The EU average was 22.1% Source

0%

10%

20%

Eurostat 30%

40%

Romania

Eurostat

€1.02m

OVERCROWDED HOUSEHOLDS Your home may feel cramped while teleworking due to coronavirus measures, but fewer than 1 in 10 Luxembourg households do not have adequate living space*, one of the lowest rates in the EU. Source

Luxflag

50%

Average asking price to buy a house in the grand duchy, as of September 2020.

The average for apartments was €667,489.

Source

Athome

Latvia Bulgaria

Poland Slovakia Greece Italy Lithuania Hungary Sweden Czechia Austria Estonia Slovenia Denmark Portugal Belgium Germany France Finland Luxembourg Spain Netherlands Malta Ireland Cyprus

*Residents who do “not have enough rooms compared to the size of the household,” per Eurostat.

“In view of the second lockdown, the deadline for filing personal and corporate income tax returns for 2020 has been postponed. Also, the Tax Administration will show exceptional flexibility with regard to business declarations for the year 2019.”

Pierre Gramegna

The finance minister (DP) said the deadline for 2020 tax filings was extended from 31 March 2021 to 30 June 2021, and 2019 business filings could be submitted until 31 March 2021.

Matic Zorman (archives)

Croatia

Photo

FEBRUARY 2021

Source

13

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDICATOR The economic and financial outlook of Luxembourg households plummeted with the onset of the pandemic.

While the central bank’s indicator* had recovered some ground by the end of 2020, consumer confidence remained grim.

Central Bank of Luxembourg (BCL)

FEBRUARY 2021

Source

5

0

-5

-10

-15

-20

-25 January

February

2018

March

April

2019

May

June

2020

July

August

September

October

November

December

*The indicator represents “the difference between the percentages of respondents giving positive and negative replies” across four components. Seasonally adjusted.

LUXEMBOURG WORKFORCE EVOLUTION

LUXEMBOURG WORKFORCE LATEST SNAPSHOT

The number of people working in the grand duchy rose by 31% over the past decade. During that period, the combined share of foreign residents and cross-border commuters increased slightly, from 71% to 74%.

445,303 people were employed in the grand duchy at the end of the 3rd quarter of 2020. Luxembourgers and foreigners living in Luxembourg each made up roughly a quarter of the workforce. Nearly half of all employees were cross-border commuters.

Source

Statec

Source

Statec

500,000

Total Residents 53.9% 400,000

Foreign residents, non-EU nationals 4.2% Foreign residents, EU nationals 23.1%

Cross-border workers 46.1% 300,000

Luxembourg nationals 26.6%

Cross-border commuters

Belgium 10.8%

200,000

Foreign residents 100,000

Germany 11%

Luxembourger residents

France 24.3%

0 2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

FEBRUARY 2021

14

ChloĂŠ Reuter has been living in Asia since 1993 and is a sought-after keynote speaker on the luxury market

Conversation

Conversation Chloé Reuter

“There’s some great creativity coming out of China” Luxembourg national Chloé Reuter is at the forefront of promoting international luxury brands in China through her Shanghai-based communications agency Gusto Luxe.

She talks about her business experience and the rise of luxury in the middle kingdom.

Interview DUNCAN ROBERTS

You started your career in journalism in Tokyo, why did you then switch to communications and end up in Shanghai? ’ve always been a real news unkie ournalism was the most perfect ob, because you have to want to understand more about issues and what’s going on, and you want to meet people and understand their stories and motivation. n okyo, was covering mostly news and financial news. ut the key issue for me was that a lot of what we were covering was about China. o, there was in okyo, having a fantastic time, but thought, ’ve got to get myself back to China, because that’s where the story is happening.’ had ma ored in Chinese when was studying at university. had always wanted to go to hanghai kind of got diverted by okyo. And ’m really happy had that experience. ut when was ready to come back to China properly, at the beginning of 2005, knew that it would be for the long term. ust fell in love with hanghai when was 19 and studying in ei ing. think it was the romance of this European feeling in some parts of the city, coupled with real China, and then this incredible accelerated development that even then was palpable. think, to me, the two ournalism and communication are very much linked. hen arrived in hanghai, it wasn’t as

Photos GRAEME KENNEDY

obvious to move into a similar reporting and television news role, because there weren’t so many opportunities. was then offered a position to do corporate communications at creative agency DD .

Had the luxury industry always been of interest? don’t think ever thought about it in that sort of way. mean, of course, ’ve always loved nice things. ut it was never really something set my mind to do. asically, what happened is that after almost five years at DD , actually had small children at the time, and wanted to have a bit more freedom. o, decided that should

CHLOÉ REUTER Originally from Luxembourg and the UK, Chloé Reuter is founding partner/ vice chair of Gusto Collective, Asia’s first brandtech holding company, and founding partner of Gusto Luxe, which represents brands including Sotheby’s, Harrods, Estée Lauder Companies and Swarovski.

She previously worked as a journalist before heading up DDB China Group’s corporate communications.

Fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, she was named one of 2019’s “women to watch”by Luxury Daily.

set up my own business, so I could be a bit more exible. And then, 2010 was the hanghai Expo. here were a lot of brands coming in, looking to figure out how to get a bit more momentum in China. And then, ogue China started, and all these luxury media sprang up. o, think it was luck that was around at that time. ith my background, thought that could bridge brands into China.

When you first established Reuter Communications, what was your five-year plan? didn’t actually have any plan at all. think umped right in at the deep end. And think the one thing that probably really helped with this whole endeavour was have truckloads of optimism and passion, and bucketloads of naivety. And think that all of those three combined really helped to ust sort of make it happen. Certainly, it was pretty tough at times, really uite a roller coaster.

You have said, in a previous interview, that learning from failures and moving on is essential to success as an entrepreneur. But that takes a certain amount of self-reflection and candour. Are those qualities that you think successful business people generally have? mean, think everyone makes mistakes, right he most important thing is to

FEBRUARY 2021

15

Conversation Chloé Reuter

16

You built up a business with 120 employees with presence in four locations. What was the challenge in maintaining employee engagement as the company grew and spread its wings? ell, honestly, the big secret is finding people who are smarter than yourself, and hiring them. Right ecause we don’t have all the answers. certainly do not. And ’ve been incredibly fortunate, especially five years ago when my business partner, Nick Cakebread , oined me. e is brilliant, and learn from him every day not uite sure what he learns from me. think that the only way you stay ahead in any business, and especially in China, is through constant evolution. he market moves so fast, and that means that your business has to move that fast. ecause if you’re still going to be relevant to clients, you need to be evolving your services, evolving your talent, bringing on different kinds of people. ecause no successful business is built on ust one person.

Now, you have been acquired

by Gusto Collective. Was it difficult to let go of the Reuter name? t’s funny, because that’s exactly what my mum was like--oh, how are you changing the name ’ actually think it was something was so ready to do. t’s uite heavy having your name on the door. And that

-23%

Shrink in global luxury market in 2020

+48%

Growth of luxury market in China in 2020

2025

Year when China is predicted to be the world’s biggest luxury market

name served us extremely well. ecause, in the early days, people thought we were maybe part of Reuters. And that got us a few clients through the door. And you know, of course, to a certain extent, the buck still stops with me. ’m a founding partner of Gusto Luxe. think not only is it exciting, because we’ve oined this new holding company called Gusto Collective, which is a startup holding company trying to do something very innovative and more tech- and data-grinding focussed, which think is the way that our business needs to shift. And to be honest, it’s been really seamless. ’m still here, ’m still Chloe Reuter. ust now work for Gusto Luxe, and not Reuter Communications.

eople’s Republic of China, one of his key messages was women hold up half the sky’. And when you look at the number of Chinese entrepreneurs and designers and women in tech, it’s fantastic what’s happening here.

So, what do you think of China’s reputation around the world, then?

Some of it has been quite negative, in recent years. think there’s no country in the world that doesn’t face some sort of criticism from somebody or either, right y own experience of living here is incredibly, incredibly positive. live in a city of 24 million people, and have never felt unsafe walking around late at night. o me, that’s ama ing. And from a business perspective, ’ve never had any issues with anyone or with different departments, from a government perspective. here’s a lot of positive here, for instance in terms of social mobility. think through sheer hard work, and grit, you can really do great things here. hilst think, in a lot of other countries, you don’t have that sort of social mobility, it ust doesn’t happen. On the whole, you’ve got a middle class that is educated, and growing every year.

What have been the main shifts in terms of customer expectations that you have noticed during your 15 or so years in the business? hat we were doing 10 years ago is completely different from what we are doing now. oday, we are working with some of the world’s largest and leading luxury brands and groups. And you know, the What experiences did you have budgets are much bigger, expectations, building a business in China? return on investment everything is bigthink that one of the most glaring differ- ger. e are offering them everything from ences is that, as a woman in China, think consulting to digital to marketing. feel the sky’s the limit. eing a woman in China like the agency model is on its way out. think that our kind of business needs to doesn’t stand in the way of anything, whilst think, purely from having worked in really be able to demonstrate how we are apan, that it’s a country where women affecting the bottom line of our clients. are not given as many opportunities. here’s And think, in order for us to do that, we actually a Luxembourger, Rupert oogew- need to have more data, more insights, erf, who publishes the urun China Rich more of our proprietary tech tools, which List. And he also publishes a list now of we’re developing And when it comes to, you know, the the world’s richest women, and the ma ority of self-made female billionaires are all market, think the potential is massive. hen you look at people’s appreciation Chinese 9 of the top 10, and 1 of the top 100 are Chinese, according to the report of lifestyle, of experiences in travel or food and beverages, of everything to art published in arch 2020 . hen ao stood up in iananmen and design, think it actually means that uare and declared the founding of the more and more brands are now looking

Bain & Company “China’s Unstoppable 2020 Luxury Market”; Financial Times

recognise that, learn from it and move on. think you need to be eternally optimistic and positive to be an entrepreneur. ecause one of your number one roles is, you’re carrying all these people with you. And you’ve got this vision of what you want to do. t takes a lot of energy. o, you are constantly coming into the office and cheerleading everyone along. hat’s why go to bed at 9pm, because ’m so done by the end of the day. oke kind of, but it’s true. wanted to create a business that would be really profitable and successful but would be built on kindness, because ’ve worked for a lot of people who weren’t particularly kind and didn’t always listen.

And felt that there was another way to do things--you don’t have to be, you know, a prat if you’re going to be a CEO. was very lucky that ’ve always had an incredibly supportive husband. don’t think would ever have done the business if he hadn’t been there.

Sources

FEBRUARY 2021

CHINA AS A KEY LUXURY MARKET

HE WANTED GERMAN QUALITY THEN HE COMPARED

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Conversation Chloé Reuter

FEBRUARY 2021

18

Chloé Reuter says she wanted to create a business that would be successful but would be built on kindness

at China and thinking, wow, what should we be doing more ecause they’re realising that, you know, this is really the only market where things are moving.

How was the luxury sector impacted by the pandemic? Did it require a radical rethink of strategy? think that you can prepare for a lot of scenarios, and yet, the pandemic was never on a list of anything ’d foreseen. And can safely say it was incredibly stressful and taxing. ended up getting stuck outside China for six months until uly.

As a senior leadership team, we decided we were not going to cut anyone’s salaries, and we were not going to sack anyone, even though, obviously, we had a lot of cancelled work and pro ects. o, my business partner and stopped taking salaries completely.

And we kept the entirety of our staff throughout the pandemic. And ’m super proud of that. e also started issuing a daily newsletter, a sort of covid watch newsletter, that think a lot of clients found useful.

China managed to contain the situation incredibly well. And so, what you have is you have a market that has come back more buoyant and even more resilient than ever before. ou’ve got luxury breaking all records. mean, of course, you don’t have people travelling overseas to buy luxury. ut you also have a domes-

here’s some great creativity coming out of China. don’t ust mean fashion brands.

And they have a serious advantage because you’ve got people here who are really proud that they are Chinese. And these homegrown brands are better at communicating through all these social media channels Do you keep in touch with what’s in China than any estern brands. And happening in Luxembourg and they are super exible. hey do really great its relations with China, especially collaborations when it comes to finding in the world of finance? opportunities to tap into different types e do some work with Luxembourg for of audiences. hat can be a makeup brand Finance. e look after their communica- teaming up with a big museum, for examtions when they do trade missions with ple, for a special collection inspired by the likes of ierre Gramegna and Nicolas some paintings. ackel. think that Luxembourg has a think that the codes of luxury are uite different here. And think that the very, very positive reputation in China. ut to be honest, think Luxembourg has a way people wear luxury is different. o, positive reputation all over the world, right you might have someone who’s marrying hey’ve got a very active consulate in Dior with a Chinese fashion designer and hanghai and embassy in ei ing. hey mix and matching. o, ’m really, really are on eChat and eibo. ou know, encouraged and excited by all of these they’re using social media channels to Chinese brands. reach out and hook people into events. hey’re pretty cool, ’d say, and the consul So, could that be a future for your generals who they’ve had for the last few company, doing the reverse of years have all been very young and very what you’re doing now? dynamic, bringing real energy and momenave you been reading my emails hat’s tum to their mission here. exactly what we’re doing right now. ’m pretty excited about this. e are actually Chinese brands and designers are starting to work with homegrown brands really starting to make waves. How are to help them go outside, yes. they differentiating themselves? tic travel market, which is stronger than ever, as people explore China and stay in luxury hotels. Even the other day, was in a very nice shopping mall and they were ueuing outside Chanel and Dior and all the top brands.

Dreaming of a new car?

SPUERKEESS.LU

Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, Luxembourg, établissement public autonome, 1, Place de Metz, L-2954 Luxembourg, R.C.S. Luxembourg B30775

FEBRUARY 2021

20

Paulette Lenert was appointed health minister just weeks before the first case of a covid-positive patient in Luxembourg was recorded

Conversation

Conversation Paulette Lenert

“Have scenarios ready to be deployed when it gets tough” One year after being appointed, health minister Paulette Lenert (LSAP) talks about the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Luxembourg, vaccine strategy, the need to maintain caution and the challenges facing the public health system.

Interview DUNCAN ROBERTS

Are you starting 2021 with renewed optimism, now that the vaccine roll-out has begun? aybe a hint of optimism in so far that we have managed, with a partial lockdown, to get our figures really consistently down.

At one moment in October, they went completely up, and we ust succeeded in achieving a certain stabilisation. And that’s what keeps me optimistic, the sense that you can see we can do it. And people certainly did understand what it was about, otherwise, it couldn’t have worked. t’s not ust about policy if people don’t respect the rules.

As for the vaccine, yes but the vaccine won’t be of any help at this very critical moment. anuary and February are really the worst months to come regarding the pandemic, combined with the new U variant. e have had it here in Luxembourg but we don’t know, and none of the countries around us really know, how uickly it will start to spread. mean, if you see what’s happened in reland and in the U , it is uite scary, because the rapidity is doubling. o, ’m really worried about that. e have to stay really strict on everything that’s unprotected contact. hat’s why we still remain really severe on visits at home, which are limited to an absolute minimum. hat’s why the hospitality sector stays closed, because you are in close contact by definition when you are eating. ’m uite happy that we didn’t give in to setting excep-

Photo MIKE ZENARI

tions during the Christmas holidays as some countries did. t was really hard to resist because there was such pressure but ust a few days can be too much. here’s some optimism because you can see vaccines are being produced and have started to arrive. e didn’t know about that six months ago and now everybody takes it for granted. ut my great-

PAULETTE LENERT Education Paulette Lenert took the traditional route for Luxembourg cabinet ministers, schooling at the Athénée and a degree in law from a French university. She also obtained a master’s in European law from the University of London.

Career Lenert has served as first judge of the Administrative Tribunal, as senior advisor at the civil service ministry, and as executive director of the National Institute for Public Administration.

In government She joined the government, for the LSAP, as minister for development cooperation and humanitarian affairs as well as minister for consumer protection in 2018. In February 2020 Lenert was appointed minister of health, as well as secretary of state for social security, and kept the consumer protection portfolio.

est anxiety is about the psychological effects of the vaccines. After the state of emergency, when numbers were really low, everyone thought everything is going to be fine. hat’s why it is a really critical time for the pandemic, because there’s a fatigue.

Were you happy with the way procurement and now distribution of the vaccine within the EU have been coordinated? must say don’t share this criticism right now. think the EU did a good ob. t’s the first time we really succeeded in acting together. And they ust made this choice to split to have like five or six producers in line, which, personally, think was really a good decision. t was like a bon p re de famille’. ecause you ust didn’t know. Everybody says, well, you should have bought more fi er’, but who knew that fi er would be the first hese messenger RNA vaccines are new, and nobody knew if they would be admitted or not. o, it was a wise decision ust not to put all our eggs in one basket.

Now, have no reason to doubt that we will receive our 0.14 of the allocation from every single contract that has been signed. t’s also a matter of production not being uick enough to deliver and logistics in getting this stuff to every single country. mean the oderna vaccine arrived ust two days after it was allowed on the market. And we shouldn’t complain about that

FEBRUARY 2021

21

Conversation Paulette Lenert

22

FEBRUARY 2021

VACCINES Is there any indication of what percentage of the population in Luxembourg is willing to take the vaccine? e are currently conducting a survey, with results coming 20th of anuary. e put a lot of energy into informing people, we have had uestion and answer events on Facebook once a week. e have the dedicated covid internet site, we’ve been hosting webinars for professionals, which is a different audience from the general public. o, am uite confident. mean the vaccines have been turned around in record time, so obviously people have uestions.

And think when they receive the answers they will feel comfortable enough to decide for themselves. t’s very successful in retirement homes, with 90 saying they will take it up, which is already very good. t’s ust a little bit early to tell.

You have been at the forefront of the government’s fight against the pandemic, and you have received praise and also been subject to some criticism.

How has that affected you personally? t was like 14 days after started that the pandemic hit Luxembourg . t’s a weird feeling, especially because it’s not over. ome people say, oh it will be done by summer’, but that’s another six months t’s tiring. Front line workers are really stressed. ut those of us in the back office have also really been on it all the time since the beginning. here was no single break, and, at the end of the year, when people usually relax, we were in the middle of planning the start of the vaccination. here’s no expectation to return to any kind of a routine.

“Digital health is one of my priorities”

5

The number of regional vaccination centres planned by the government.

They will be in Limpertsberg, Findel, Ettelbruck, Esch-Belval and a location to be confirmed in the east of the country

36,000 The number of people the government has targeted to have vaccinated, using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, by the end of March

0.14%

The allocation of doses Luxembourg will receive from each vaccine supplier with which the EU has signed delivery contracts

Obviously, the pandemic has taken away resources from other health services?

Exactly. e try to handle emergencies, but it’s not been normal. Clearly, you have the same challenges in bigger countries, but here it’s always the same lawyers, the same doctors here at the direction de la santé. t’s the same people in the comité de pilotage Was it also a challenge coordinating with the other government ministries? think that’s probably easier here in Luxembourg, because we are small. o, you can easily get in touch, make a phone call. e have fewer hierarchies. f you have local authorities, and so on, or municipalities that makes it even more complicated, like in France now. e have these centralised vaccination centres, for example, which is easier to organise than having to work and coordinate with a whole panoply of different actors.

One particular area of concern was schools. Parents were worried, teachers expressed concern…

t’s very important. f you think about the collateral damage for the youth, you cannot imagine. hey had to ust cut off their social contacts. t’s not only the educational aspect, but it’s also ust building their social competencies that’s really hard for them. And it’s a very difficult decision. From a society point of view, think it really should be the priority to give them the education they are entitled to. And that’s really a challenge.

And there was never a routine because at the beginning we were told there were studies saying children don’t transmit the virus that much, then new studies saying they do. o, it was really difficult to navigate on this uctuating knowledge. eople were saying, you don’t have a scientific basis for your decision’, but where would we get it Nobody had it. t takes time to conclude studies. o, during the emergency, it’s really difficult to have this reliable scientific evidence. f you wait for that mean the virus is a natural thing, it spreads, it doesn’t care if we have evidence or not. t’s ust there and you have to act. And then it’s very difficult to take this criticism … because everyone’s an expert, right? es, and it touches the whole of society. o, it’s really a political sub ect. And the image have is that spent like two-thirds, or even more, of my time ustifying what do, explaining what do rather than taking decisions. And that, that’s not normal. n a crisis, you should be on the bridge leading and taking action and not spend time on ustification and explanation.

What lessons have been learned from the pandemic that can be applied to future crises? reparedness. ave scenarios ready to be deployed when it gets tough. ecause it was really a challenge all of a sudden to find the right people, to address them, to get the contracts done. think we could have a re ection for the future to assist in identifying tempore non-suspect people who could be really thinking or detached for such tasks. hat’s really something that we could work on. Even now, there are more people from other administrations working for me than have staff here. And they will eventually have to go back to their work. o, it’s very uctuating from a human resources point of view, it’s not a solid team that’s used to working together.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Women: 10(0) women xxxxxxxxxxxx for your comex

TRANSLATION INTO FRENCH PROVIDED

T H UDAY RS DAY

Texte Even if in theory diversity is recognised as a strength for organisations, in general, Texte management committees are still very, too male.

After the success of its March 2020 issue dedicated to “100 women for your board of directors”, Paperjam magazine will present, in its March 2021 issue, 100 profiles of qualified women to consider for your comex. During this 10×6, ten of them will speak on stage.

With the participation, among others, of: Béatrice Belorgey, BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Corinne Lozé, Orange Luxembourg Charlotte Pedersen, Luxaviation Pascale Toussing, Administration des contributions directes Laurence Zenner, CFL Cargo

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18:30

Conversation Paulette Lenert

FEBRUARY 2021

24

Paulette Lenert, pictured with prime minister Xavier Bettel ahead of a press briefing in July 2020, has been the public face of the government’s strategy in combatting the pandemic

The Association luxembourgeoise des étudiants en médecine has reported that up to 30% of medical students don’t return to Luxembourg to practise. What measures can be taken to encourage more graduates to come back to Luxembourg? es, that’s one of the main points of the Gesondheetsd sch a health system working group that includes actors from across the sector which was launched on 14 Feb-

A European Council opinion reported in May that between 59% and 69% of current medical staff in Luxembourg are expected to retire over the next 15 years. Is this going to pose a staffing crisis? t’s pretty challenging. f we start with studies, develop a medical school, it won’t bring in people who are trained within a year or two. hat’s why also strongly believe in innovation and technology. e

really have to push everything we can that makes the ob easier, relying more on remote monitoring or teleconsultations. o be efficient without needing the same amount of human resources. Another strategic approach could also be to invest much more money in prevention, to keep people healthy for longer. And, as said, in digital health, there are some really good practices over in other countries that we still haven’t implemented here.

Is the local medical professional on board with this strategy? es, at the Gesondheetsd sch, all the actors are with us. ut it’s difficult in pandemic times to advance at the rhythm you expect, because of the dynamic. And one of the things is that you ust can’t meet really naturally t’s easier to handle physical presence meetings, especially dealing with such huge sub ects. find it easy to work on ebEx with my team or people you know, it’s been fantastic. t doesn’t make much of a difference, in fact, it’s even more efficient than driving around to meet. ut for the Gesondheetsd sch, something’s missing, because it’s really a very broad spectrum of actors and we ust need this room to socialise, to communicate.

Romain Gamba

ruary last year. tudies in the medical field are very much linked to practice. o, because people study abroad, they are already connected, when they start their working life, not ust to their university, but to hospitals and medical centres, and so on. think very naturally they ust put down an anchor to their social life, probably more in this field than other fields of study. t’s very important to develop complete medical studies here in Luxembourg as well, not only for our nationals, but also to attract people from wherever. o, we will end up doing the same, because if you have attractive studies with attractive practices and internships, then that would be the challenge for the country to convince people to stay here. ecause the problem is not specific to Luxembourg, every country is probably making efforts to make it attractive for people to stay.

Photo

The health sector in Luxembourg is facing its own challenges away from the pandemic. What is the latest status of the proposed Observatoire de la santé? t still has to be passed in parliament. t would certainly have been a big advantage. to have it in place. hey could have handled the whole thing, because there was so much missing. e had to develop programmes for the monitoring, to have a view on levels of CU occupation....

Digital health is one of my priorities anyhow, but all the data collection, the tracing there was nothing. e were still working with faxes when started. thought it was a oke. n Germany, they still do. ithin one or two months, we put up the whole system with databases to have this completely changed and modernised.

And think now they see how good it is to have good data management in place.

SEASON 13 2021

T H U RS DAY

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Selected highlights

F E B RUA RY

10×6 Women

with Charlotte Pedersen, Laurence Zenner, Corinne Lozé, Pascale Toussing, Béatrice Belorgey and ...

10(0) women for your executive committee

CEO & Entrepreneurs Winter Cocktail Round table: State Finances et taxation

with Nicolas Henckes and Michèle Detaille

T U E S DAY

with Christian Monjou

Art & Leadership

APRIL

10×6 Surprise

18

M A RC H

Club Talk

13

T H U RS DAY

T H U RS DAY

27 M AY

with Ann-Elise Delbecq

Club Talk

T H U RS DAY

17 JUNE

Tackling bias in artificial intelligence, and eventually in humans

Paperjam’s Real Estate Seated Dinner Party with François Trausch

W E D N E S DAY

20

O CTO B E R

Round table Housing crisis

with Eric Lux, Olivier Bastin and Jacques Brausch

Paperjam Recovery Awards W E D N E S DAY

15

D EC E M B E R

Start-up Stories Awards MORE EVENTS ON PAPERJAM.CLUB

T H U RS DAY

2

D EC E M B E R

T U E S DAY

28

SEPTEMBER

BRAND VOICE

26

FEBRUARY 2021

In this increasingly digitalised world, humans continuously inspire and help each other, says Gabriela Nguyen-Groza

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Conversation

28

FEBRUARY 2021

“Why not go out of your comfort zone?”

Larisa Faber at Neimënster, where the actress, writer and director has been developing and refining her project as an artist in residence

Larisa Faber talks about her motivation for writing Stark Bollock Naked, dealing with audience expectations and the pressures of the biological clock.

Interview DUNCAN ROBERTS

Photo MIKE ZENARI

Larisa Faber

29

Larisa Faber has been using her time as the artist in residence at Neimënster to give her provocative and moving monologue a fresh and intriguing makeover as a live show with body mapping and live music by Catherine Kontz.

The text is a dramatic comedy about the ticking of the so-called biological clock and society’s expectations of women, and also explores perceptions of the female body in art.

Where did the germ of the idea for Stark Bollock Naked come from?

I mean, you’ve got this play about women’s portrayal in art and you’ve hung on to it this theme of the biological clock, or was it the other way ound?

It was the other way round. I wanted to write something about the pressure of the biological clock, the story of one perUnfortunately, the performances at Neimënster have now been pushed son and where that pressure might come back to sometime in 2022. from and the impact on mental health.

Readers can still enjoy the published text by purchasing the High Five But I didn’t quite know what the strucanthology from Black Fountain Press. ture or the form might be, until I was www.blackfountain.lu approached by Black Fountain Press to contribute a text for their anthology [High Five!, published in May 2020]. And once that offer came, and the deadline was there--they let us choose the theme, the You mentioned the humour. How form, the genre and style--from that important was the comedic element moment onwards, I started writing it in in writing the script? And is that a way one go. And when I started writing this of reaching the audience and making idea with the nudity, and the projections them more engaged? and the mapping, it suddenly seemed Maybe this is my personal taste, but I the obvious way, for me at least, to tackle really connect with odd humour in dark the subject. situations. Maybe this is something also, perhaps, from my [Romanian] heritage.

And then how did the show at Camden Many of the stories my mum and my People’s Theatre come about? gran told me under communism… I mean, After it was accepted by Black Fountain most of them included jokes. It was their Press, I knew that I wanted to bring it to way of kind of coping with the pressure the stage. And at that time, I was still in and the pain that was associated with London. I had moved back to London for life there. So, I’ve always sort of thought precisely that, because there are so many that they were very, very close. And my theatres dedicated to new writing… more aim was to make it comedic, in part at experimental storytelling forms. Camden least. And now in the residency, we’ve People’s Theatre had a call out for projects. developed that even more. Towards the They have this regular event called “Big end, there’s a kind of pastiche of the Bang”, where you have a roughly 20- to 1950s musicals. I love weird music. I haven’t 30-minute slot to share a work in progress. seen tons of musicals, actually, but I love And they offer the space and technical the potential that they bring for humour, equipment, marketing support, and so on. and weirdness and irony.

Let’s talk about the collaboration What was the reception from the with [composer] Catherine Kontz. audience in Camden?

I was extremely nervous. And I thought Did you give her free rein for the at one point, why are you doing this to score? Or did you collaborate quite yourself? Just put your clothes back on closely together? and get out of here. I didn’t know anyone It was a stroke of luck, honestly. We hadn’t in the audience, except for my mum and worked together before. I asked for recommy boyfriend. And the auditorium was mendations. Actually, I asked [chief advifull. But by sheer luck, they were the kind sor at the ministry of culture] Jo Kox of the people that I’d written it for--mid- whether he could recommend people, 20s to early and mid-30s, a very diverse because I wanted to work with someone crowd of people. I wanted to test whether who might also have some sort of link the humour works and whether the concept with London. It happened quite naturally. works with the video mapping. Thank- We got along very well, and she really fully, the reception was very good. They embraced the concept when I said I’d did laugh, which was a huge relief when like to have this sort of orchestra of gynaeI stood there naked and taped up. cological instruments, performed on

stage. Now Catherine’s as much a performer as she is a musician and composer. She did say she draws the line at being naked, but otherwise she’s game for everything else. It’s no longer a one-woman show at all. I mean, there are two characters on stage.

Do you think Luxembourg audience will react differently from Camden?

What do you hope they will get from the show?

When the text was published, in Luxembourg, there was a string of reviews… and what I found most interesting, most of them didn’t even mention abortion. So, I thought, I’m not sure Luxembourg is right for this. But then I did a reading at ulturfabrik, with three or four different authors, and this was a lesson because the audience, they were nothing like the audience at Camden. I thought, they’re going to hate it, but afterwards I sold all my books. So, I thought why not go out of your comfort zone and maybe not just preach to the converted?

In a way, I’ve written it for this particular age group, who might be struggling with this [biological clock]. In London, the feedback I got from women, all of them said that they felt empowered, or they felt heard, they felt that it resonated with them. But then it would also be lovely, if… I don’t know, change someone’s mind is maybe too big of an ask, but if they have a laugh, and if it sort of gives them comfort.

Do you think some people might see it as a political text, then, even though you’ve said it comes from a very personal space?

Maybe. I do think all art is political. But at the same time, it’s still about storytelling. So, for me, they have to go hand in hand. I still go to the theatre or to the cinema to basically be told a story. You know, you can have a political play and have a good laugh as well. I mean, I’m not saying that this is the play, but hopefully, something along those lines.

FEBRUARY 2021

STARK BOLLOCK NAKED

Businness Business report report

FEBRUARY 2021

30

Get your car search into gear

4,000

3,000 Renault 2,453

TOP SELLING MARQUES German brands have poll position on the list of best-selling passenger cars and commercial vehicles in Luxembourg, representing half of all new registrations, January-November 2020.

Source

Peugeot 2,082

SNCA

2,000 Fiat 1,260

1,000

Hyundai 1,273

Volvo 1,382

Skoda 2,580

Automotive

1 “In 2021 the goal is for one-third of all our sales to be hybrid or electric” What could give BMW and Mini sales a charge this year p. 32

2 Green is the new black How Luxembourg e-subsidies work

FEBRUARY 2021

Ahead of the 57th edition of the Autofestival, the most important event for Luxembourg’s car dealers, Delano has these tips for shopping for a new ride and hitting the road safely.

31

p. 34

3 Be assured behind the wheel

Volkswagen 4,783

How to get your vehicle safety check and supplemental insurance to consider p. 36

Mercedes-Benz 4,464

BMW 3,886

4,000

Audi 3,389

3,000

Autofestival 2021 From 25 January to 8 February, prospective car buyers can visit 170 showrooms to take advantage of special offers, take a test drive and learn about the latest technical developments.

2,000

www.fedamo.lu

1,000

32

Automotive

Business report

1

“In 2021 the goal is for onethird of all our sales to be hybrid or electric” models. The high-performance M3 and M4, first unveiled in September 2020, are expected to be a major attraction this year, particularly since the powerful cars remain a popular choice in Luxembourg, despite changing regulation.

As for the Autofestival, during which PHEVs, for which sales were already high in 2019, appear to be the most pop- the dealership makes 30% of its annual ular of the two types of engines. The shift sales, this year’s affair will likely be uiin attitude was partly accelerated by the eter and more focused. Long gone are the new WLTP emission norms that were festive buffets and family outings to the brought in and the fact that BMW has garages. Given caution resulting from the developed PHEV versions of most of its pandemic, Vallin says he expects only popular models. “In 2021, the goal is for serious buyers in showrooms. It is just as one-third of all our sales to be hybrid or well--test drives will be restricted, because electric,” Vallin said. “What’s complicated of the re uirement to thoroughly clean is that we have the offer and we’re waiting the interiors between customers. Vallin is for the demand, which is dictated by […] optimistic, however. importer aid and government aid.”

Words JESS BAULDRY

TOTAL NEW MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS Annual sales of new passenger cars and commercial vehicles have roughly kept pace with Luxembourg’s economic and population growth, reaching a record high in 2019. The pandemic slowed, but did not a put a total brake on, sales in 2020 (although December figures were not available at press time).

Source

National Society of Automotive Traffic (SNCA)

60,000

50,000

* Through November 2020

2020*

2016

2011

2001

2006

1996

20,000

Photo

30,000

Bilia-Emond

40,000

1991

BMW sales fell 15% over the year, largely because of difficulties in obtaining stock, but also because half of this brand’s sales are associated with eet and, faced with the fallout of the health crisis, most leas- New models ing customers chose to renew their con- BMW has been producing PHEVs and tracts. While the Howald-based garage EVs for the past three years. The sales team didn’t hit its eet goals, it did a roaring now “instinctively” pushes customers in trade in secondhand vehicle sales. “The this direction, Vallin said. Among the new models were recent and I think people felt models customers can discover this year deprived during the lockdown. So, they will be the i 3, its first electric U which decided to treat themselves to a nice sec- has a range of 460 kilometres in a single ondhand car,” Vallin speculated. charge. From Mini, new this year will be Sales recovered on the Mini side, largely the Boardwalk Edition of the Countryman because eight out of ten clients for this LCI and John Cooper Works GP, while brand tend to be private buyers. the Cooper and Countryman LCI have Among the stock that did well were been updated. It will also add some standhybrid plug-ins (PHEVs) and electric vehi- ard features to the Mini Cooper electric cles (EVs). Despite the lockdown, the deal- model, including a navigation package ership more than doubled its goals in this and additional connected services.

It is no secret that the manufacturers area. Vallin credits the success to generous subsidies, which the Luxembourg state are transitioning to PHEVs, considered a raised to €8,000 after the lockdown. “When gateway to EVs. Vallin estimates that BMW I look at Belgium, they didn’t meet their will soon make its entire range of internal goals. We exploded ours. €8,000 on a car combustion engine (ICE) models available that’s worth €40,000, it’s 20%! The prod- in plug-in formats before doing the same uct is great, but the state shouldn’t now for 100% electric. But that does not mean withdraw the subsidy.” they will discontinue manufacturing ICE

1986

If 2020 was “the big unknown” for BMW and Mini car dealership Bilia-Emond, it is hoped 2021 will be a little more predictable. “In terms of evolution, I expect 2021 to be like 2020. We won’t reach 2019 levels. Customers will remain cautious,” managing director Baptiste Vallin told Delano in early January.

1981

FEBRUARY 2021

Baptiste Vallin, Bilia-Emond

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34

Automotive

Business report

2

Green is the new black

abroad and have been registered in Luxembourg for the first time between 1 anuary 2019 and 31 December 2021. Additionally, vehicle registration must occur no later than six months after the vehicle first entered into service. Applications can be made between seven months and two years after first registration. ubsidies range between €500 and €8,000, depending on the category of the vehicle and its purchase date.

For details, search for “Financial aid for the purchase of an electric or hybrid Unoubtedly, the shift towards more sus- vehicle” on the government’s web portal, tainable vehicles in recent years has been guichet.public.lu. driven by the increasing number of new models introduced by most manufacturers, Words LYNN FEITH offering motorists a much broader variety to choose from. At the same time, support measures put in place by the government are also playing a huge role in boosting the popularity of electric vehicles.

PLUG-INS GAINING

Hybrid and e-mobility subsidies The government support introduced in 2019 in order to promote e-mobility consists of subsidies available for the purchase of a new vehicle--car, van, motorcycle, uadricycle, moped--which is either 100 electric or operates with a hydrogen fuel cell or a plug-in hybrid motor with CO2 emissions below or e ual to 50g km.

Any person or any organisation which owns vehicles registered in the grand duchy can ualify.

Granted by the environment ministry, the subsidy is only available for vehicles that have not previously been registered

EUROPEAN TRACTION

Sales of battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars in western Europe went into overdrive in 2020*.

Source

Schmidt Automotive Research

1,200,000 1,000,000 800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 0

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019 2020

*Rechargeable new car sales in 18 markets in western Europe, including Luxembourg.

2020 is provisional for year to November

Driving is still faster through the city In December, shortly after the inauguration of the new tram line linking the central train station and Kirchberg, four journalists from Delano’s sister publication Paperjam set out to find the fastest way to get from Bonnevoie to the Coque. It was a race between those taking a Vel’oh! city bike share, an electric scooter, the tram and a car.

Surprisingly, driving a car was fastest, needing around 20 minutes for the trip.

But the race was tight: the scooter placed second, the tram was third and the Vel’oh! was in fourth place, taking a little over 26 minutes.

So if you need to decide which one to take, consider the unique benefits of each form of transport rather than speed.

Whereas the car offers greater flexibility and comfort, a scooter allows for a quick, effortless journey. The tram, on the other hand, lets you enjoy the stunning scenery of the city without having to worry about traffic or parking, while using a city bike is a quick and easy workout.

Nader Ghavami (archives)

Although Luxembourg’s automobile industry has not been spared by the pandemic, with a decrease of 17.9% in new car registrations in 2020, electric vehicles have been on the rise, now representing one in five cars on Luxembourg roads, the national car dealership federation Fedamo said in January 2021.

Photo

FEBRUARY 2021

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36

Automotive

Business report

3 3 top tips

FEBRUARY 2021

Be assured behind the wheel Nearly all cars will need to pass a safety check.

But you might want to consider taking out these two supplemental insurance policies, just in case.

1. Vehicle inspection If you own a car in Luxembourg, at some point you will probably need to visit one of the country’s MOT-authorised stations for a vehicle safety inspection (contrôle techni ue . What vehicles need to pass a roadworthiness test? All automobiles, motorcycles and trailers registered in the grand duchy need to be checked “by one of the approved technical inspection bodies in Luxembourg” every few years, according to the government informational portal MyGuichet. Vehicles may need to pass an additional inspection after repairs, following an accident or if the police observe a technical malfunction. What do they check? nspectors verify vehicle identification, engine emissions, brakes, lights, electronics, axles, wheels, tyres, suspension, the chassis, steering and visibility.

They will also examine registration, insurance and tax certificates, which all need to be current. When do vehicles need to be inspected? Automobiles and motorcycles need to be checked 4 years after they first hit the road, then 2 years later that is to say, years after the vehicle first entered service) and then annually. Trailers and vans need to be inspected annually. Owners can take their vehicle for the check 8 weeks before the expiration of the current technical inspection certificate.

Where can I go for a vehicle safety inspection? The National Vehicle Testing Centre NC has five locations rdv.snct.lu , Dekra has a location in Bertrange (www. dekra-automotive.lu and LU has a location in Lorentzweiler (www.luks.lu).

How much does it cost? For initial tests,

don’t want to get behind the wheel.

To encourage drivers to make that responsible choice, insurance company Axa offers its “ oker axi” feature to all rates range between €53.50 and €64 for its auto policyholders. a car or a van (SNCT charges less for elecThe insurer states: “If you are unable tric vehicles), €40-€43 for a motorcycle to drive your vehicle, Axa pays your taxi and €35-€38 for a trailer. Rates are lower fare three times a year, 24 hours a day, and for retesting after repairs. within a 70km radius of your home.” The taxi will also drop off passengers along 2. Breakdown insurance the way, “as long as they are going in the here is nothing uite like the sinking same direction”. feeling when your car doesn’t start, or you loise offers similar coverage to its get a at tyre and you don’t have a spare. auto policyholders.

While nearly every insurance policy will cover towing a vehicle immobilised after Words AARON GRUNWALD AND LYNN FEITH an accident, roadside assistance for breakdowns is not always included. That’s why many drivers buy a top-up policy.

The gold standard in the grand duchy is the Automobile Club Luxembourg www.acl.lu . t provides 24 roadside rescue, repairs and towing in “some 50 NEW CAR REGISTRATIONS countries in Europe”. Anecdotally, every

BY FUEL SOURCE ACL member that Delano has spoken to Sales* of electric and hybrid vehicles accelerated during the second half of 2020, has been satisfied. One said “ hey’ve possibly driven by government subsidies. never let me down.”

Source SNCA Membership covers a driver regardless of the vehicle they are driving. A year’s 100 % Europe-wide coverage costs €89.50 for the first driver and then for a spouse 80 % or partner. A cheaper Luxembourg-only policy is also available. Membership runs 60 % the calendar year to 31 December.

Before taking out a new policy, check 40 % with your insurer. Breakdown service is part of several Lalux (www.lalux.lu) for20 % mulae. Axa (www.axa.lu) and Bâloise (www. baloise.lu offer breakdown assistance as 0 % a top-up feature. If you lease a car, breakDec. 19 March 20 June 20 Sept. 20 down insurance may already be part of Feb. 20 May 20 Aug. 20 Nov. 20 your plan. It is standard for ALD Automotive (www.aldautomotive.lu) and LeasePetrol Diesel Electric plan (www.leaseplan.com) contracts.

Hybrid Hybrid electric Other** 3. Get a ride home when you need it If you’ve had too much to drink or you’re feeling really unwell, then you definitely

* Figures rounded; average of monthly figures for each 3 month period ** Including compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas

Round table: ESG criteria, the rise of regulation?

Julie Becker (Bourse de Luxembourg)

Kelly Hebert (M&G)

Claude Marx (CSSF)

T U E S DAY

Carried by the size of its financial industry and the country’s desire to always be at the forefront of development, Luxembourg has established itself as a key player in the ESG criteria.

On the institutional side, the European Commission presented a “green deal” at the end of 2019 and the health crisis has accelerated the development of continental regulations. What can we expect from it? Which criteria, controls and sanctions? Is the development of local regulations desirable? All these questions will be addressed during this round table.

REGISTRATION REQUIRED ON PAPERJAM.CLUB

04 M AY

18:30

Head to head

38

The post-Brexit relationship As the UK and the EU start talks on reaching a memorandum of understanding on financial services, what impact will Brexit have on businesses in Luxembourg and London?

John Marshall has been the UK ambassador to Luxembourg since April 2016. He is due to leave the post in April 2021

If we can turn our minds back to So now, the UK and the EU are starting Christmas Eve, what were your talks on reaching a memorandum of thoughts when it was announced that understanding on financial services. a deal between the EU and the UK What do you think this MoU could had been agreed? entail and is a deadline of the end of March viable?

JOHN MARSHALL Quiet satisfaction. It was quite satisfying a way to see the whole pro- J.M. There are going to be discussions that cess through in accordance with the tim- will hopefully lead to agreement on this ing that we envisaged. Obviously, we would MoU. And then we’ve got this outstandhave preferred to have reached agreement ing question of whether there will be furslightly earlier on, looking for maybe the ther equivalence decisions. I would say sort of crunch moment to be in mid-Oc- we’ve been very clear that in whatever tober rather than at the end of December. sector, including financial services, we That’s often the way these negotiations go. retain the right to regulate. We’ve already It is to the credit of negotiators on both announced some areas where we do intend sides that they were able to achieve so to diverge. ut what we’ve also said conmuch in a relatively short period of time. sistently, again, across all sectors, includNICOLAS MACKEL Relief probably is the one ing in financial services, is that we’re not word that would best describe my feel- going to diverge for the sake of it. ing. The terms of the agreement in its N.M. The way I read it, it is an MoU whereby substance may not change much for the the two sides agree to set up a framework financial services industry. ut its exist- for future regulatory dialogue, not reguence is important because it changes the latory negotiations, nothing of the kind. atmospherics. Had there not been an It’s not something where you really negoagreement, and a departure in acrimony, tiate equivalences, because they’re not think it would be much more difficult negotiable, they’re unilateral. ut, given to envisage a smooth relationship con- the continued importance of London as tinuing in financial services. a financial centre, the EU should not make the mistake of not listening anymore to the expertise that is available in London.

We have seen in times of crisis, like this, like 200 , we see on issues like fintech and sustainable finance, there is a lot we can still learn from the UK, and the other way around. That the declaration sets the March deadline shows that they are serious about it, they want to progress, and that, I think, is very encouraging.

“The City is an extremely sort of dynamic place”

But [European financial services commissioner] Mairead McGuinness had said the EU’s interest is “making sure that we are not captured by a system that we don’t regulate”. So, is there any chance of concrete progress?

J.M. In our view, decisions should be taken on how things are now, and if things change

Financial services

“It’s not something where you really negotiate equivalences”

cial services sector, particularly around sort of sustainable green finance and tech There has been some movement of areas. I think there is an innate confiassets and jobs to Luxembourg and dence that the City will continue to make other EU financial centres, but it most of the existing opportunities, reinmaybe didn’t materialise to the extent vent itself, adapt, develop, always be at that many expected. Do you think the sort of the vanguard of exploring new there will be further exits from London avenues and financial services. And it will over the next year or so? still be an incredibly attractive and appealN.M. The answer is clearly yes, more will ing place for people to work. And not just follow. ut the mistake that many people for ritish people, but for people from are making is they only count the jobs that across the EU and across the globe. left London. In fact, you need to count the N.M. I’m partly very optimistic also for jobs that have been created elsewhere, where London, because if you look at not only you do see an impact. What happened over the expertise and the intelligence that is the last four years was firms set up more available in London, but also the UK’s or less contingency operations. And even academic sphere, and you combine both, these contingency operations grew over you can certainly create something very the last two years. ake one example, G powerful. On the other hand, I always here in Luxembourg. think they started think that if you are a financial centre, out at 10, they’re now at 43. And you have you are serving a geographic market. If plenty more of those. Initially, I always the EU market is off limits, if the U will said, in my opinion, 3,000 jobs [would be remain closed, India, China will remain created in Luxembourg in the first two closed; what is it that will be the UK’s years of rexit. think we are already at primary geographic market? least at 2,000 jobs. So, we’ll easily do the J.M. I think that it can be anchored in 3,000 over the first two years. ut that’s geography. ut at the same time, there’s not what our French or German friends at something that’s global, and supra regional. one stage thought of as in terms of multi- Essentially, the opportunities are there to ples of tens of thousands. be discovered. And it’s up to us now, to see what we can do with this freedom of On the other hand, London might have action that we now have, and I’m not just some new opportunities that could talking about financial services. And again, create jobs in the City? that’s not something that is going to be J.M. he City is an extremely sort of clear after one month, or one year, it’s dynamic place full of incredibly expert going to take five to ten years or so. and entrepreneurial people, and they will seize those opportunities.

N.M. I don’t see any opportunities that would not have been available while you were a member of the EU. J.M. The chancellor back in sort of Novem- Moderated by DUNCAN ROBERTS ber set out a bit of a vision for the finan- Photos MATIC ZORMAN

FEBRUARY 2021

in the future in a way that the European Commission finds unacceptable, then obviously they have the right to sort of suspend or withdraw those decisions. We would hope that that would be done in the context of the dialogue that hopefully will be provided for as the result of this MoU. N.M. It’s not quite that simple. I think the commission does have a point when it says it needs to be a decision that is taken on the basis of how things are today. ut as long as you cannot give some sort of commitments that you intend to keep it e uivalent, it’s difficult for us to grant such an equivalence. So, I do think that there are two sides to this coin, and two views that are equally valid.

39

Nicolas Mackel is the CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, the agency for the development of the financial centre

Essay

FEBRUARY 2021

40

Pushing for green sovereign wealth Pressure has been mounting on the government to overhaul its sovereign investment strategy and make state-owned funds more sustainable.

With new leadership, climate laws and a pending policy review, could the time finally be right for change?

Words CORDULA SCHNUER

Illustrations SOFIA AZCONA

Sovereign investing

41

In September 2019, the Luxembourg branch of Greenpeace took their climate activism to the courtroom, demanding social security minister Romain Schneider (LSAP) answer the environmental group’s questions about climate financial risks linked to the Luxembourg state’s pension fund.

It was one of approximately 1,444 climate change cases filed globally in 2019, according to a report by law firm Norton Rose Fulbright into the rising phenomenon of climate related litigation.

And even though a judge ruled that figures available--managed a portfolio the ministry couldn’t be expected to have of €21.31bn, enough to cover more than at its disposal the information Green- four years’ worth of pension payments. peace requested, the case proved to be a “For us this report is an inventory,” said partial victory, as the pension fund pledged Holbach. “But we think it’s a shame that to carry out a climate impact study. the fund is compared to a benchmark and “The connection is obvious,” said Green- not a calculation of what would be needed peace campaigner Martina Holbach about to protect the climate.” the report’s timing. “I’m convinced that For example, the fund’s emissions are it wouldn’t exist,” had it not been for the around 13% higher than its 2°C carbon legal challenge. “The things investigated budget for the period 2012 to 2025, the are exactly the questions we posed to the report said. While this is better than the minister.” index it’s being measured against, it’s far The report--unveiled in December from ideal.

2020--shows the pension fund having a smaller carbon footprint than an inter- Climate pledge national benchmark and a lower risk of Luxembourg in December 2020 enshrined stranded assets. But it also clearly states its climate targets into law, vowing to that if the fund continues investing as it reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% does now, it will contribute to the Earth’s compared to 2005 by the end of this decwarming by up to 3°C, which scientists ade and becoming climate neutral by warn would leave large parts of the planet 2050, all with the aim of limiting global uninhabitable. warming to 1.5°C. “We are far from the Paris Agreement,” said Marc Baum, a member of parliament for left-wing party Déi Lénk, which voted against the pension fund being established in the first place and at regular intervals scrutinises the government’s approach via parliamentary questions, CARBON TO REVENUE INTENSITY motions and interpellations.

Source Fonds de compensation/Trucost The Fonds de compensation commun au régime général de pension--more com800 monly known only as the Fonds de compensation, or FDC--was created in 2004 to gain revenue from the pension system’s 600 excess funds.

The contributions by private sector 322 400 284 workers are divided into covering costs for pensions being currently paid out and 200 reserves managed by the FDC. Public sector workers’ pensions are managed through a separate system.

0 Since becoming fully operational in Tonnes of CO2 emissions per million € of revenue generated 2007, the FDC has accumulated returns worth around €9bn from its investments FDC portfolio and at the end of 2019--the latest official

But rather than reducing its carbon footprint, the grand duchy saw emissions rise by 2% between 2018 and 2019, according to data by the EU’s statistics arm Eurostat. Not-for-profit Oxfam, in an analysis published in December, found that at 214 tonnes of CO2 emission annually, Luxembourg’s richest 1% of the population are the biggest polluters globally.

And the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in an assessment of Luxembourg’s climate track record last year warned the country needed to do more to actually meet its targets, including cleaning up its investments.

This call for action is all the more important for a country that prides itself on the sustainable credentials of its financial centre. “What use is there in advertising Luxembourg as a green financial centre if its own pension fund doesn’t manage?

It’s grotesque,” said Holbach. “A Luxembourg fund that uses public money should be a role model.”

Sustainable finance Under the stewardship of finance minister Pierre Gramegna (DP) and environment minister Carole Dieschbourg (Déi Gréng), the government in 2018 adopted a sustainable finance roadmap as part of a plan to achieve the UN Agenda 2030 and its 17 sustainable development goals.

For Baum, the sustainability drive debunks claims that sustainable investments are less

CARBON TO OUTPUT INTENSITY Source

Fonds de compensation/Trucost

812.25 729.45

800

600

400

200

0 Tonnes of CO2 emissions per million € in GDP generated

Benchmark

FEBRUARY 2021

FDC AND FSIL Both the FDC pension fund and the FSIL, each in their own way, aim to ensure future generations are well off. The FDC by adding to the reserves of the pension system and the FSIL by creating savings that can be used to tackle future crises such as climate change or housing when the time comes for the next generation to take over.

Essay Sovereign investing

FEBRUARY 2021

42

profitable. “Our impression is that the finance ministry is ready for bigger change,” he said, “for a discussion on how strict we should be and how high we want to set the bar.”

It’s an impression shared by Greenpeace, and a pledge by Schneider and Gramegna to work more closely together could help move things forward, Holbach said.

Gramegna has his own fund to oversee.

The Fonds souverain intergénérationnel du Luxembourg (FSIL) was set up in 2014 as a piggy bank for future generations. It is fed with €50m annually by the government and starting in 2035--or when it reaches €1bn in assets--up to half of its annual revenue can be paid back into the public purse to boost spending capacity.

At the end of June 2020, the fund was worth around €375m. Unlike the FDC, it is managed passively, tracking indices rather than owning the underlying assets.

This could change in 2021 as the fund grows, Gramegna has said, giving the fund greater decision-making power over the companies it makes money off.

Closer alignment between the ministries could also mean more coherence between the two funds’ investment approaches. The FDC in 2011 published its first exclusion list of companies in which it does not invest on environmental and ethical grounds. Because the FSIL does not subscribe to the same list and cannot unpick companies from the products it invests in, around €2.5m of its assets are linked to companies blacklisted by the pension fund.

The exclusion list is updated twice a year and in its latest version features 119 companies, a list that should be much longer according to activists. Up for discussion aren’t only investments worth more than €246m in carbon majors such as Shell, Total and BP, but a litany of other companies under scrutiny for their environmental, social and governance performance.

These include palm oil company Wilmar, which Amnesty International in 2016 accused of child and forced labour, but also mining firms Newmont, Glencore and Rio Tinto, among many scandals criticised for excessive use of force during protests, displacing indigenous peoples and contaminating soil and water.

While Greenpeace has been pushing for carbon divestment, it wants to go much further. “My biggest wish would be for the fund to adopt a sensible, coher-

THREE IDEAS FOR REFORM Déi Lénk has proposed a reform of the FDC’s legal framework around three key pillars: ESG Enshrining environmental, social and governance criteria in law would widen the scope of the fund managers’ obligations.

Ethics Similar to the Norwegian government’s pension fund, Déi Lénk wants to appoint an ethics committee to advise the FDC’s board of directors on its investment strategy. The board includes government, employer and employee representatives but no civil society members.

Exclusion The FDC has argued that it cannot exclude entire sectors of activity under its current statutes. The proposal by the left party would change this, as well as making it possible to ban investments linked to problematic individuals.

ent and sustainable strategy with strict goals and criteria, beyond excluding a couple of sectors,” Holbach said.

Even though carbon divestment is at the top of the agenda now, other sectors could come under pressure in future, Holbach said, such as intensive animal farming, companies contributing to deforestation or consuming large amounts of water--an ever more precious resource. “We must look at it more strategically,” Holbach said.

What comes next?

The majority parties in parliament--the DP, LSAP and Déi Gréng--in December voted in favour of a motion calling on the government to make the FDC and FSIL more sustainable and socially responsible, as well as ensuring they are Paris Agreement compatible.

Déi Lénk abstained from the vote over the document’s final point, demanding

the government review whether it should pour more money into the FSIL to create an even bigger stockpile for the future.

“We say, take the money and fund climate policies now,” the party’s Marc Baum said.

The social security ministry said in an email that the motion would now be analysed. “The results will be presented and discussed in the parliamentary committee accordingly. This should take place in the first half of 2021,” it stated.

Déi Lénk is already one step further.

“Time and again, the same argument has been brought forward: that without a change in law, it would be impossible to carry out more far-reaching divestments,” Baum said. “The government parties voted a motion in which one element is to review possible legislative changes.

We’ve done that job for them.”

The party’s proposal includes enshrining sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially responsible investing as part of the fund’s missions, enabling the exclusion of specific sectors and individuals, and setting up an ethics committee to advise the FDC’s board.

Baum said the party was open to adapting elements of the proposal. “The main point is whether there is political will to go in this direction. I have a feeling there is.”

The pension fund’s board will discuss the climate report and its possible ramifications this year, the FDC said without indicating a more precise timing. It will be up to its new president, Alain Reuter, to set the agenda.

“I put a lot of hope in him,” Holbach said of the change in leadership. Reuter took office on 25 December 2020 following the retirement of Fernand Lepage. “He is a member of the board and should be familiar with the issues. It is one of our next steps to meet with him personally and present our concerns.”

With the FDC due to analyse its investment strategy in 2022, as part of a scheduled assessment every five years, both Déi Lénk and Greenpeace see an opportunity to push the fund in the right direction.

Going green in the framework of the 2022 review would enable the FDC--and the social security ministry--to save face.

“They can say it’s not a revolution but a coherent step forward to make big changes at that time and set priorities,” Baum said.

HAALT ÄR AEN AN OUEREN OP! OUVREZ GRAND LES YEUX ET LES OREILLES !

HALTEN SIE IHRE AUGEN UND OHREN OFFEN! KEEP YOUR EYES AND EARS OPEN!

Gusto

FEBRUARY 2021

44

Cooking classes Learning new culinary skills via an online course has become a life-saver for many foodies. Here’s a selection.

1 Plant-based dishes Private chef and recipe developer Marinola holds weekly Instagram live cooking sessions and can provide private group lessons via Zoom. Photos on these pages feature dishes by Marinola.

3 Taste of Japan After a homemade teriyaki chicken cooking course via Zoom, The Japan Luxembourg Association anticipates similar sessions over the coming months.

www.marinola.com

japan.luxembourg@gmail.com FACEBOOK JLAlux

6 Pro Home Cooks One of the Brothers Green, Mike Greenfield has a great interactive website that features a wealth of educational and entertaining digital food content. www.prohomecooks.com

Words NATALIE A GERHARDSTEIN Photos MIKE ZENARI

“The most indispensable ingredient of all good home cooking: love for those you are cooking for.”

4 Jamie Oliver Hardly still the flavour of the month, but the British chef’s YouTube channel contains an incredible array of videos, including healthy recipes, cooking with kids and 1-minute tips to improve kitchen skills.

YOUTUBE

Jamie Oliver

Sophia Loren

Tapas galore From musakhan (a sumac chicken dish) to stuffed grape leaves and a variety of hummus, Yummy Alep’s weekly cooking courses on Facebook share the finest of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nosh.

FACEBOOK

Yummy Alep

Boost y ou

5

c ome ookin h g r

Tired of cooking? Here are four ideas to upgrade simple meals.

1

2 Christina Tosi’s bakers club

Additional photos

Shutterstock, Maison Moderne

The Milk Bar founder hosts classes on Mondays at 8 p.m.

Luxembourg time from her home in New York City.

INSTAGRAM

christinatosi/channel

Bamboo steamer Available at most Asian grocery stores, steamers are a great way to cook low-fat or fat-free veg, meats and more.

2 Instant pot These pressure cookers, ideal for families, make perfect rice in under 10 minutes and offer plenty of options for one-pot dishes.

3 Glassware jars Infuse your own oils or vinegars, or try your hand at making pickles and preserves.

4 Food processor A quick way to make pestos, spreads, or simply shred potatoes for some winter Gromperekichelcher!

FEBRUARY 2021

45

Welcome to the Club

Business Club

FEBRUARY 2021

46

Club news

Flashback Your events For the end of the year, Paperjam Club’s flagship format, 10×6 took place on 26 November. The digital sector and more specifically Smart Factories were in the spotlight, represented among others by 6 Björn Ottersten (SnT), 1 Thomas Kallstenius (LIST) as well as 7 Pranjul Shah from University of Luxembourg Incubator, all partners of this event. Our big Paperjam Top 100 show took place on 16 December in the Crystal Park premises of our sponsor PwC, represented by 4 John Parkhouse, as well as in the presence of our other sponsor for this event, ING represented

by Colette Dierick. The Top 10 were in attendance to receive their awards in person, including well-known faces such as 3 Sasha Baillie (Luxinnovation), award winner, as well as 5 Thomas Seale (Seale Advisory, CSSF) one of our jury members.

Ana Wiscour-Conter

Ana Wiscour-Conter is the new deputy director of Paperjam + Delano Club.

She has returned to the grand duchy, where she grew up and started her career, following recent periods of work in New York and Monaco. She will be supported by a team including Julie Lhardit (head of programming), Magali Larese (head of production) and Emilie Bertoni (head of member relations).

"Link Link information to the physical world"

In numbers

Thomas Kallstenius LIST

1,300

COMPANIES The number of company members of the largest business club in Luxembourg.

1

18,000 MEMBERS

The number of individuals who are part of the vibrantly active Paperjam + Delano Club community with whom you will get to interact.

3

HOW TO ATTEND PAPERJAM+ DELANO CLUB EVENTS ?

You’re already a member Please check the Club section on our website paperjam.lu.. Select, among all the digital and on-site events listed, the ones you would be interested in, fill in the registration form at the bottom page and register.

2

You’re not a member yet Please email the Paperjam+Delano Club via club@paperjam.lu and an account manager will be in touch to introduce you to all the perks offered by the largest business club in Luxembourg.

2

José Soares (SnT)

47

Programme January/February

FEBRUARY 2021

Wednesday 27 January

3

Delano Live chat: LGBT on top TIME 17:00 – 18:00 LIVESTREAM Thursday 28 January 10×6

3 3

4

Sales & Marketing: 10 omnicanal strategies TIME 18:30 – 22:30 Livestream Wednesday 24 February

Start-up stories (1/4)

5

" It’s all about the data "

TIME 18:30 – 22:30 Livestream

6

Thursday 25 February

Björn Ottersten SnT

10×6

Pranjul Shah University of Luxembourg Incubator

10(0) Women who lead TIME 18:30 – 22:30 SPONSOR Enovos

Photos

" Use this design to availability to imagine, to adapt to circumstances"

Simon Verjus, Julian Pierrot

7

Sign up on the Paperjam + Delano Club site: club.paperjam.lu

011 BY MIKE K N2 OE DI DI DE

N GE

R

FO UN

48

FEBRUARY 2021 EDITION EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

FEBRUARY 2021

Mike Koedinger EDITORIAL DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Editorial Phone (+352) 20 70 70-150 E-mail news@delano.lu DESK EDITOR

Aaron Grunwald (-152) JOURNALISTS

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HEAD OF MEDIA SALES AND SOLUTIONS

PROOFREADING

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Publisher

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Jeremy Leslie HEAD OF PRODUCTION

www.maisonmoderne.com Phone (+352) 20 70 70 E-mail publishing@maisonmoderne.com FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN

Mike Koedinger CEO

Geraldine Knudson ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL DIRECTOR

Etienne Velasti Maison Moderne is a partnership between Francis Gasparotto, Mike Koedinger and Etienne Velasti.

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

Mike Koedinger STRATEGIC BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ADVISOR

Francis Gasparotto DEPUTY DIRECTOR, BUSINESS CLUB

Ana Wiscour-Conter CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER

Viktor Dick HR MANAGER

Stéphanie Poras-Schwickerath

Anaïs Bouillet/Sylvie Notarnicola

HEAD OF ART DIRECTION

ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER

Vinzenz Hölzl ART DIRECTOR

José Carsí LAYOUT

Sophie Melai (coordination), Juliette Noblot, Clemence Viardot, Guillaume Sinopoli MANUFACTURING MANAGER

Sylvia Leplang DIGITAL PROJECT MANAGER

Meryem Alamy DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Kévin Thirion IT MANAGER

Matthew Dixon

Myriam Morbé

To contact staff members

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FEBRUARY 2021

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Pick’n’mix

50

On the road

A 2006 black Mini Cooper Cabrio with Chromeline.

Josh Island

Julie Kohlmann

CO-FOUNDER OF DIARIESOF TRAVEL MAGAZINE

HEAD OF LUXEMBOURG UNION FOR SOCIAL ECONOMY (ULESS)

MUSICIAN

WEALTH MANAGER AT BIL

A Lotus Elise.

My first motorcycle was a BMW F650GS.

What is your dream vehicle?

Living in the city, it has to be small, smart and sporty--I love our Mercedes-Benz SLC.

How do you usually commute?

Ruta 40 in Argentina, spectacular roads in the Japanese Alps and off-road steppes in Mongolia...

Non-electric scooter, car and bus.

Do you plan to switch to hybrid or electric in 2021?

All routes beyond the highways.

Daniel Tesch

Not yet.

I would love to, but preferably on two wheels.

Have you ever changed a spare tyre?

What is your favourite driving route in the world?

What was the first car you owned?

DESIGNER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR AT CLAUDIA EUSTERGERLING DESIGN

Jorge Valente

Of course I have. I like to be independent and know how things work and what I can do.

Yes, in Kyrgyzstan.

Luckily, I was not too far from a village with a small service shop.

Motorcycles provide an incomparable sense of freedom and adventure…

Easy! A Land Rover Defender 110. My previous cars were leases.

An orange Citroën 2CV I acquired in exchange for my grandmother’s lawnmower.

An Opel Astra Sports Tourer.

The BR-040 in Brazil-beautiful scenery and a microcosm of the local economy…

Through the lush green and mountain landscapes of La Gomera, a small Canary Island.

I could see myself in one of these new mini-airplanes like the PAL-V-pretty cool stuff.

It is a matter of distance and weather: I walk, take my bike or take the bus.

Motorcycle.

I don’t think so. I’m not convinced these solutions are the real answer to…

CO2 emissions.

Sure! Quite often.

Being a rally driver, eastern and southern Morocco are very wild and preserved areas of the country.

Aston Martin DBS. I love the pure and powerful sound of the Aston engines.

A Tesla Model Y

By car. I often need to go to places without great public transport, plus I’m carrying lots of gear…

I walk a lot!

Almost 10km per day.

I live in Luxembourg City, which helps.

For now, it’s too expensive and the range doesn’t satisfy me… but definitely within several years.

Not yet. But for off-road rallies, I would love to switch to the electric car category.

Not yet, and I hope I won’t as I don’t carry a spare currently--on my to do list!

Yes, during rallies, it can happen. And twice in Luxembourg, friends called me for help.

Both times, it was men with big cars…

author’s own; Lala La Photo; Maison Moderne; FernandoV/Shutterstock; PAL-V; Roschetzky Photography/Shutterstock; Roman Belogorodov/Shutterstock; medvedsky.kz/Shutterstock

Claudia Eustergerling

Photos

FEBRUARY 2021

Five diverse drivers choose their dream car, favourite trips and daily commute.

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