For 9 years Tanguy van de Werve has sat at the top of Leaseurope, an organisation that was fundamentally designed to lobby the interests of the industry in the busy halls of the European Commission.
In July, news broke that he was to leave Leaseurope and its consumer finance sister organisation Eurofinas, and had decided to join the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) as its managing director for advocacy and head of AFME’s Brussels office.
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It’s arguable that during van de Werve’s tenure, Leaseurope has developed its identity as a professional organisation, with clear evidencing in terms of progression and growth of membership.
"Over the past nine years we have more than doubled the size of our staff and relocated to new, professional looking premises without any real increase of membership fees: we have managed to do this by attracting many new members" said van de Werve to Leasing Life during an interview in the organisation’s head office in Brussels.
Over the past decade, numerous national organisations have joined Leaseurope, from the Swedish Car Rental Association Biluthyrarna Sverige in 2006, to Lithuania’s Association of Lithuanian Banks in 2009, and most recently The Turkish Association of Financial Institutions (AFI) last month, bringing the totals to 45 national member associations and 22 associate members.
"European policy makers are much more aware of leasing today than they were in the past, mainly due to Leaseurope’s efforts" says van de Werve.
"The many people we see and meet now realise that leasing is important. Leasing awareness has risen without a doubt over the last few years: the EU institutions (incl. EIB and EIF) acknowledge the importance of leasing, in particular in relation to SME access to finance. The SAFE survey of the European Commission and the ECB is a case in point."
Van de Werve makes the case for cohesiveness adding to the effectiveness of the lobbying weight for Leaseurope, part of a culture that he instilled.
"We see ourselves as the glue of the industry," said van de Werve. "It is about the industry as a whole, not just Leaseurope as a Federation of national associations.
This is the reason why we have launched Associate and Affiliate membership programmes. Consultants, research firms, software companies, insurance brokers, remarketing firms, credit bureaus, management consulting firms, etc. have become part of our ecosystem. This benefits all parties involved. And we are now successfully developing partnerships with Universities to encourage leasing-related academic research."
Van de Werve points to the development of the business intelligence on the leasing market that the association has funded. Leaseurope has developed the factual evidencing for the metrics in the asset finance community, in response to its members’ requests.
"We have launched a number of products that benefit the market participants." said Van de Werve. "For example Leaseurope’s ranking of Europe’s largest leasing companies and more recently the confidence survey that we run in tandem with Invigors in London and the Leaseurope Index. These products have to do with us being the glue of the industry at European level, not with lobbying."
By extending the membership scheme and professionalizing Leaseurope’s Annual Convention, Van de Werve boosted income, meaning Leaseurope has the financial resources to run a 500,000 fund for research, most recently producing its Oxford Economics associated paper on the importance of leasing for European SMEs and empiric research on the risk profile of leasing carried out by consultancy group Deloitte on behalf of the Federation.
The strategic insight Van de Werve grasped early on is that leasing needed to be inserted into the grand narratives that MEPs are debating for the whole of Europe, and not simply shouted about in a partisan way.
Quantitative reports commissioned by the association from OE and Deloitte gave irrefutable evidence of the worth of asset finance in the greater narrative of SME financing in Europe – now widely seen to be the engine of growth and favoured by MEPS when legislating economic policy Van de Werve was strategic while redeveloping Leaseurope’s Board during his tenure.
"If your Board consists of CEOs of companies operating across Europe, it really is an asset as the way they look at things tends to be aligned with the objectives of Leaseurope and you avoid endless national-based discussions among people protecting their turf.
Also such Board members are naturally ambitious for Leaseurope as they understand the value of having an ever stronger European trade body," said Van de Werve.
"At the same time it is vital to ensure that national associations remain in the driving seat as far developing and approving the official positions of the Federation is concerned. We remain a Federation of national associations and could not achieve much without them, in particular for lobbying." he added.
Part of Van de Werve’s legacy will be the foundations that he laid for the future of the organisation, including the incentives for change in corporate culture and encouraging new talent with the introduction of the Future Group scheme.
"With the Future Group, we invite heads of leasing and automotive rental companies from across Europe to nominate one talented individual in their organisation, aged 35 or less. The nominees meet three times at the European House of Leasing in Brussels. The objective is to foster innovation and creativity by asking each Group member to develop and present their own unique innovation for the leasing industry.
The Group, along with Leaseurope and Invigors, then decide on the best three ideas. The three chosen concepts are then further elaborated and rigorously critiqued and tested before being presented at the Annual Convention in October where a winner is picked. It is one of the most successful sessions at the Convention" says van de Werve.
"Why? Because the grey-haired managers attending the Convention recognize that in today’s fast changing world the industry needs to constantly re-invent itself and that the younger generation is far better placed to do just that. They are much more capable of anticipating and understanding the changes ahead."
Internal restructuring by Leaseurope was also one of the things that Van de Werve cites when asked what he is most proud about changing.
"Moving away from a situation where we had two thirds of our workforce organising a Convention to a situation where leasing companies primarily value Leaseurope for the quality and relevance of its lobby and research work is a source of satisfaction. Another one is the fact that my successor will be joining an organisation that is in great health and is well recognized not only by the industry but also by policy-makers".
