Welcome Theo van Drunen
We are pleased to announce that Theo van Drunen joins the Advisense office in Frankfurt. Theo moves from a role as Head of Data & Model Management within Credit Portfolio Management to Director within Advisory at Advisense. We caught up with Theo to talk a little bit about his past experiences and why he joined Advisense.
Theo, please start by telling us a a little bit about yourself
My name is Theo van Drunen. I’m living in the Netherlands, I’m married and I have three sons.
I have just joined FCG Risk & Compliance GmbH in Frankfurt. Previously, I was Head of Data & Model Management within Credit Portfolio Management in ABN AMRO Corporate & Institutional Banking. I’m experienced in leading teams of financial and quantitative professionals in banks in the areas of model development and portfolio reporting and analytics. I enjoy the challenge to understand and explain complex matters in a simple way. In the early stages of my career, I was programming computers, and I’ve always retained an affinity for IT, data and systems.
In 2005, Fortis Bank, where I was then working, joined Global Credit Data (GCD). GCD is an association of banks aimed to help banks better understand and measure their credit risk through data pooling and knowledge sharing. Ever since, I have been involved in GCD, in the last 6 years as chairman of the GCD board. A great experience to work with other board members from banks across the globe, as well as with the executive team that is running GCD on a daily basis.
What is your background and area of expertise?
Originally, I was educated as a modeler. Straight from university I got my first job in a small consulting firm to develop corporate financial planning models for clients in various sectors. Seven years later, after an assignment for a bank, I moved on to a larger consulting firm to focus on risk management in banks. Around that time the Basel II regulation was published, introducing the use of models on a larger scale for the measurement of risk and to calculate minimum capital requirements. My team was involved – in an early stage – in various assignments for the larger banks in the Netherlands to implement Basel II. Our services ranged from assessing the compliance to the new regulation and the gaps to be closed, development of PD and LGD models to setting up data warehouses and portfolio reporting. The experience we gained even brought me to Stockholm where we presented our solutions to the Swedish banks.
Later I joined Fortis Bank and ABN AMRO where I worked in the central risk departments as well as in the corporate banking area. My roles included heading the model development for corporate banking, specialized lending, setting up credit portfolio management in central risk, portfolio management for the Energy, Commodities & Transportation business, and finally head of the cluster Data & Model Management within corporate banking business. In these roles, I was also involved in numerous regulatory and risk methodology projects.
What made you join FCG?
After leaving the bank, I decided I wanted to return to consulting to combine my previous experience with the knowledge and expertise acquired through my work in the bank. From my involvement in Global Credit Data, I knew FCG and some of the people in FCG. Soon after talking to Philip Winckle and Jimmi Brink, I was introduced to Christine Ehnström and Jonas Ljungqvist our discussions fuelled my enthusiasm. FCG is a firm of expert consultants, and the company values are very close to me, in particular professionalism, dedication, and teamwork. Finally, the opportunity to go back to working internationally is something I am looking forward to.
What will be your focus areas within FCG?
The main areas where I can contribute are model development and credit portfolio management. Many banks are currently in the middle of a complete overhaul of their modelling landscapes. This involves an enormous effort in data remediation and development of models compliant with the strict regulatory requirements. Credit portfolio management is an area where banks are at a different stage of development, from basic reporting on the credit portfolio to advanced models with integrated front- and back-end portfolio steering to improve risk-adjusted return. Data and data quality are key for both modelling as well as for portfolio management.
In addition, my involvement in regulatory topics such as Asset Quality Review, TRIM, New Definition of Default, Risk Appetite setting and NPE Strategy will hopefully be useful to our clients. Moreover, my general project experience and know how to approach complex matters will definitely be of value to our clients.
