Meet the Energy Leader: Olaf Sleijpen

“Climate change – the interaction between physics and central banking”

Olaf Sleijpen - Board Member, Dutch Central Bank
12 February 2020

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Modorator: professor Kornelis Blok

Abstract
DNB, in its capacity as prudential supervisor, resolution authority and central bank, seeks to safeguard financial stability and thus contributes to sustainable prosperity in the Netherlands. DNB in this mission also focuses on climate- and environment-related risks, and calls attention to issues of sustainability such as the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. To do so, we are an active partner in various collaborative structures, such as the Sustainable Finance Platform and the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). But why does DNB feel it’s its job to engage in these matters? What exactly has DNB done in recent years? And how can physics, the financial sector and central banks further cooperate?

Biography
Prof. Dr. Olaf C.H.M. Sleijpen (1970) is Director of Insurance Supervision at DeNederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB), the Dutch central bank, and a member of DNB’s PrudentialSupervision Council. Olaf is also a member of the Board of Supervisors and the ManagementBoard of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA). Since 2007,he has also been part-time professor, holding an endowed chair in European EconomicPolicy at Maastricht University.Olaf was Director of Supervision Policy at DNB, from 2015 until October 2018 and Director ofPension Supervision Division from 2011 to 2015. In the former position, he was a member ofthe Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and an (alternate) member of the Board ofSupervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA). Before (re)joining the Dutch centralbank in 2011, he held several executive positions in the pension industry, at APG Groep N.V.(2008-2011) and pension fund ABP (2004-2011), one of the largest pension funds worldwide.From 2001 to 2003, Olaf worked at the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt am Main,as personal adviser to President Wim Duisenberg, and Co-ordinator of the Counsel to theExecutive Board. Before joining the ECB, he held various positions at DNB from 1993 to 2001,such as DNB’s Communications Director and (senior) economist at the Monetary andEconomic Policy Department and the International Affairs Department.Olaf Sleijpen studied Economics at Maastricht University. He obtained his doctorate atGroningen University in 1999, having written a thesis entitled “Does Economic and MonetaryUnion require a Fiscal Union? Some evidence from the United States.” He (co-)authoredseveral publications in the area of European monetary and economic integration, pensionsand financial regulation. He was awarded the “Young Captain Award” in 2008, an accoladefor talented young private-sector executives in The Netherlands.

Olaf Sleijpen