Pankaj Basal currently serves as an Additional Secretary to Government for the Tamil Nadu Health System Project. Prior to his current position, Mr Basal held different positions within the public sector; amongst others, as a Project Director for the Hogenakkal Water Supply Scheme. He also has extensive international experience having undergone training not only in India but also in the USA, Japan, Denmark and Singapore.

In 2009, Mr Bansal received the Prime Minister's Award for best NREG’s, District Collector, Sivagangai.  He is also a recipient of the National Award (Gold) for e-governance 2011-12 presented to Health Management Information Systems, for the Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, under the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, for exemplary Re-use of ICC based solutions.

Mr Basal is a graduate of IT-Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and obtained his Master's Degree in Thermal Engineering from IIT in New Dehli.

Darío Luna holds a BA in Economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, an MA in Administration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an MA in Risk Management and Insurance from City University in the United Kingdom. Mr Luna joined public service in 1996 and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit in 2001. He has held numerous positions in public service including with Pemex, SHF, Banobras and the CNBV. He has also participated in the private sector as an executive of Willis Re in London. Before being appointed to his present assignment, Mr Luna served as Chief of Staff to the Viceminister of Finance and Public Credit.

Ivo Menzinger leads Swiss Re’s business activities with governments, development and non-governmental organisations in Asia and the firm’s efforts to accelerate growth in emerging markets across reinsurance, insurance, and investments.

He started his career as specialist for natural hazards in 1998 and held various important positions over the past years, including Head of Sustainability & Emerging Risk Management, and Managing Director of Corporate Strategy and Enterprise Steering, reporting directly to the CEO.

Mr Menzinger holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences from the Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.

Reto Schnarwiler leads Swiss Re’s business activities with governments, development and non-governmental organisations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mr Schnarwiler initiated the Public Sector team at Swiss Re in 2007, with hubs in New York, Singapore and Zurich. As the Deputy Head of Swiss Re Group’s Strategy Development team in Zurich, he had worked on several major group projects since 2003. Previously, he served in a client-management role for selected clients in Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America, and was based in New York for two years. Mr Schnarwiler was involved in a variety of significant transactions, including one of the first securitisations of natural catastrophe risks in 1997. He joined Swiss Re in 1996 as underwriter for non-traditional reinsurance solutions.

Reto Schnarwiler holds a degree in business administration from the University of St. Gallen (lic.oec. HSG) in Switzerland and a MBA in Financial Services & Insurance from Leuven-Vlerick Business School in Belgium, the University of Nyenrode in the Netherlands and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.



Dang The Vinh earned his finance degree in Germany in 1981. After his graduation, Mr Vinh worked for 4 years for the ministry of finance of Vietnam where he was in charge of supervising the light industry sector. This was followed by a 9-year period with Bao Viet, the state monopoly insurer. Mr Vinh developed and managed several lines of business, including engineering and property insurance.

Between 1994 and 1997 Mr Vinh was with Vina Re, then a state reinsurer, involved in the setting-up and development of the new company. As deputy managing director he was in charge of the energy and engineering business.

From 1996 until 2007, he worked as deputy general director with Bao Minh, then another state insurer, representing Vietnamese interest in Japanese non-life insurance joint-venture UIC (United Insurance Company).

In 2008, Mr Vinh joined Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (VinaRe). As deputy CEO, he supervises all underwriting departments of VinaRe including marine, property, engineering, construction, aviation, energy, motor, agriculture, and new businesses.

Mr Vinh is married and a father of two sons.

Simon Young has a background in Earth Sciences and has extensive experience in natural hazards mapping, risk assessment, disaster management and climate change adaptation. For the past 10 years he has worked as a consultant to numerous public and private sector organisations in the Caribbean and beyond, providing a broad range of disaster and climate risk management services.

Since 2006, that work has been undertaken as head of the team at Caribbean Risk Managers Ltd. CaribRM is Facility Supervisor (operational and risk managers) of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, and Technical Operations Manager of MiCRO, an innovative catastrophe risk transfer vehicle serving the microfinance sector in Haiti.

CaribRM is particularly focussed on developing innovative risk management solutions as tools for climate change adaptation, including input to economic assessments of climate change impacts in the public sector, climate risk audits in the private sector, and development and implementation of index-based risk transfer products.