ESF Board Of Directors Elects 2008 Chair And Announces Board Members

The board of directors of the European Securitisation Forum (ESF), an affiliate of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, elected Robert Palache as the association’s chairman for 2008. Palache is managing director and the head of European Securitisation and Asset Monetisation Group for Morgan Stanley International in London.

Rick Watson, managing director of the ESF, said, “We are delighted to have Robert as our new chair at this important time in the structured credit market. The ESF has indentified initiatives to help to restore normal liquid market conditions and Robert will play an integral role in helping us to achieve that goal.”

Palache added, “This is a challenging time for both the organisation and the industry and I will continue to drive the ESF’s agenda to engage central banks, regulators and market participants on steps to actively restore liquidity and to spearhead other industry initiatives for the structured products markets.”

Palache succeeds Philippe Tromp, managing director, Europe, for Financial Security Assurance. Tromp was the ESF’s chair for two years.

Tromp, who will remain on the board, was praised for his work steering the association over the last two years. “We thank Philippe for his tremendous contribution and dedicated leadership over the past two years,” said Watson. “We look forward to his continued involvement in the board and executive committee.”

The 35-member board comprises representatives from institutions involved with all aspects of securitisation and CDO business, including investors, issuers, arrangers, ratings agencies, legal and accounting advisors, trustees and others.

Other appointees were also approved at the board meeting. A complete list of all ESF board of directors is attached.

ESF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Clifford Chance	Kevin Ingram
Commerzbank	Christopher McMullen
Financial Security Assurance (U.K.)	Philippe Tromp
HSBC	Scott Dickens
JP Morgan Chase	Bradford Craighead
Mayer Brown	Jason Kravitt
Morgan Stanley & Co. International	Robert Palache
PMI Europe	Richard Sullivan
Standard & Poor's	Ian Bell
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group	Mark Hickey

ESF BOARD MEMBERS

HBOS	Robert Plehn
Barclays Capital	Allen Appen
Bear Stearns International Ltd	Jesus Rio Cortes
BNP Paribas	Tim Drayson
Caja Madrid	Carlos Stilianopoulos
Calyon	Thierry Sebton
Citi	Robert Liao
Clifford Chance	Kevin Ingram
Commerzbank	Christopher McMullen
Credit Suisse	Adrian Carr
Deutsche Bank	Mark Graham Marzio Keiling
Dresdner Kleinwort	Fraser Malcolm
European Investment Bank	Anneli Peshkoff
Financial Security Assurance	Philippe Tromp
Fortis Bank	Ralf Bauer
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer	Alan Newton
GMAC-RFC UK Ltd.	Stephen Hynes
Goldman Sachs International	Toby Watson
HSBC	Scott Dickens
ING Bank	John Henderson
JPMorgan Chase	Bradford Craighead
Lehman Brothers International	Amany Attia
Mayer Brown	Jason Kravitt
MBIA	Iain Barbour
Merrill Lynch International	Pierre Martignoli
Moody’s Investor Service	Frederic Drevon
Morgan Stanley & Co. International	Robert Palache
PMI Europe	Tony Porter
Société Générale	Jean-François Despoux
Standard & Poor's	Ian Bell
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group	Mark Hickey
UBS	Peter Shorthouse
UniCredit Group	Mark Lewis

ESF Committee and Working Group Chairs

ESF Accounting Committee	Peter C. Jeffrey	PricewaterhouseCoopers
ESF CDO Collateral Managers Working Group	Marcus Klug	Omicron Investment Management
ESF CDO Committee	Fritz Thomas	Deutsche Bank
ESF CMBS Committee	Marcus Mackenzie	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
ESF Conference Committee	Marc Bajer	Assured Guaranty
ESF Conference Committee	Steve Curry	ABN AMRO
ESF German Committee	Matthias Renner	WestLB
ESF German Committee	Martina Spaeth	UniCredit Group
ESF Investor Committee	Charles Griffith	Barclays Global Investors
ESF Investor Committee	Richard Paddle	HBOS
ESF Italian Committee	Eugenio Cerioni	Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
ESF Legal, Regulatory and Capital Committee	Mark Nicolaides	Latham & Watkins
ESF Market Standards and Practices Committee	Peter Atkinson	State Street Bank and Trust Company
ESF Market Standards and Practices Committee	Jonathan E. Keighley	Structured Finance Management
ESF Researchers Working Group	Alexander Batchvarov	Merrill Lynch International
ESF Solvency II Working Group	Simeon Rudin	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
ESF Spanish Committee	Ana Arias	Grupo Santander
ESF Spanish Committee	Alvaro Canosa Castillo	Caja Madrid
ESF Spanish Committee	Jesús Sanz García	Ahorro y Titulización SGFT
ESF Tax Working Group	John Cullinane	Deloitte
ESF Trustee Committee	Olufemi Oye	Deutsche Trustee Company
ESF Trustee Committee	John Russell	Sidley Austin