NAIROBI 15 NOVEMBER, 2011– Jef Vincent is an avid collector of African ‘tribal’ art who labels himself “a thinker”. He is also ATI’s new Chief Underwriting Officer. Sitting in his corner office in ATI’s Nairobi-based headquarters on his first week on the job, Jef, a Belgian national, reflects on the winding journey that led him to ATI and to Africa.
Perhaps it was a bit of psychic premonition when at twenty-one he predicted that he would have a career characterized as “international, not staying with the same job for too long and working with younger people.” In retrospect he was right on all counts.
Trained as an Industrial Psychologist with a postgraduate in Social Psychology from the University Paris V, Jef’s first career was working for a non-profit organization to improve the lives of handicapped people. After five years, he needed a change so at thirty he moved to the for-profit sector as the Human Resources (HR) Manager for a Japanese manufacturing company in Belgium.
Realising that he had found his professional niche, he quickly moved up the ranks and went from the HR Manager for JP Morgan to the HR Director for Euler Hermes Belgium. At this point, fate in combination with his love of adventure coincided resulting in an opportunity to set up a joint venture with Euler and a local company in Prague. When the venture returned a profit after just two years, his superiors took notice.
In his third year in Prague, Euler presented him with another offer, this time as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for their Singapore branch and eventually as their Regional CEO for Asia.
“At that time, Euler – as a group – was still young and they lacked managers with international experience so their decision to offer me the position of CEO in Asia was partially a function of being at the right place at the right time.”
In a span of 19 years at Euler (which later became Euler Hermes) Jef evolved into an “all-rounder” in the field of credit insurance, particularly in nurturing new markets under sometimes difficult circumstances. During its first years the Singapore branch had to overcome the implosion of the internet bubble and the resulting economic crisis, the onset of SARS and political tensions in Indonesia. One of his major accomplishments at Euler was to grow the Asia business into a 50 million Euro business, employing 200 staff spread over 12 countries.
Despite the geographic distance during these years, Africa never seemed to be far from his mind.
“I have always been fascinated by Africa – by its history and its culture. It started with my collection of ethnic art specifically from Angola, the DR Congo and Central Africa. I have a fairly large collection of staffs, which were used as symbols of power.”
His interest in art was fueled over forty years ago by his psychology professor and mentor who spent years teaching and collecting art in the DR Congo.
Although he harboured a passion for Africa, the path to the continent from his professional life in Europe and Asia was not obvious – that is until he returned to a “quiet life” in Belgium after nearly 10 years in Asia.
Back in Belgium, he joined the firm, Delcredere NV / Ducroire SA, the Belgian subsidiary of the state-owned parent company ONDD, as Head of Underwriting and Credit Information. Here, once again, he was tasked with creating something new – to transform the purely Belgian underwriting department into an international team, with underwriters in UK, France, Germany and the Czech Republic, working with the same guidelines, quality standards and processes on a unified IT platform.
During this period he initiated and finalized a major change program in the Czech subsidiary, which made heft losses but was eventually acquired in 2009.
This project took a lot of resources and led naturally to his appointment as Integration Manager with the parent company where he was responsible for integrating diverse entities into the larger ONDD group.
“Although I enjoyed the work in Belgium, I missed the excitement of the operations, the development of new markets and in particular, building something from the ground up.”
Around this time, he saw the posting for the Chief Underwriting Officer position at ATI and something clicked. This was his chance to fulfill a lifelong ambition while putting to use the wide breadth of knowledge he had acquired in the credit insurance business.
“The position at ATI is interesting for me because it has an added element of political risk insurance, which is its main line of business so far – plus I will have the challenge of growing the short-term credit business.”
When asked about his approach to the job, he quips that “my final yes wasn’t on Wednesday” referring to the day in September that the Management of ATI offered him the position. Instead he delayed his decision until he could meet with the entire team to ensure that the corporate culture and team would be a good fit for him.
This attention to detail and team-based approach will likely define his professional style as he begins tackling one of his first tasks – to define and implement an integrated IT system that will be able to handle the company’s projected growth 10 to 20 years into the future.
Jef also wants it on the record that he is first and foremost a “rational and task oriented” person who intends to work with a sense of urgency to bring the company into profitability. To do this, he plans to make ATI even more proactive and productive when it comes to getting business.
“My passion is to create an environment – products, IT tools, a remuneration logic, simple processes and distribution channels through which the team becomes ‘automatically’ motivated and productive. I enjoy closing deals myself, but I enjoy even more when others do it with a minimum of direct intervention.”
And as you might expect from a thinker, he intends to spend the first months observing, learning and understanding before he begins making his mark.
“I’m a problem solver, and a visionary. I try to imagine how things should work in an ideal world, and then I try to create the conditions to bring me there. I believe in long term solutions that require time to build. I hope that whatever I’ve built in my career will last beyond my time with the company. If you are able to do this successfully, the company will be able to thrive long after you’ve left.”
