Impact of Changing Geopolitics: Preparing Risk Management Strategies in a World of Uncertainty

Hala Naoum Néhmé is senior Manager at PwC Netherlands where she advises the top management of various organizations on their strategic and operational risk management. She is also the co-author of the book ‘Impact of Geopolitics: How

companies decide on their strategies’ (published in April 2025, commissioned by Stichting Management Studies)

Before joining PwC in 2021, Hala worked as a senior policy maker for the Dutch Ministry of Finance where she had different roles and responsibilities among which as a country expert at the export credit insurance policy desk.

She studied political science (cum laude) and international economics at the University of Amsterdam and Institut d’études Politiques de Paris (SciencesPo).

Dr. Thijs Knaap is the Chief Economist for APG Asset Management, where he advises pension fund clients on their investment strategy. APG is involved in managing the pension assets and/or pension administration for some 4.6 million participants in the Netherlands with around €612 bn. AuM worldwide (Dec. 24). Before joining APG in 2011, Thijs worked as a researcher on the role of pension

funds in the Dutch economy for the CPB, the Dutch government’s bureau for economic policy analysis. During his tenure at APG, he spent two years at the company’s Hong Kong office, looking into the role of Asian investments in the portfolio. He studied econometrics and holds a Ph.D. in economics from Groningen University in the Netherlands.

Casper Ruizendaal is a partner in the Advisory practice of PwC. Casper is responsible for PwC’s Risk Consulting practice in the Netherlands, providing advice and services to clients in the financial, public and consumer and industrial sector. Services include digital and operational resilience, regulatory compliance and integrity, ESG and AI risk management and financial risk modelling and validation.

Casper has a focus on enterprise and non-financial risk management, primarily for financial institutions in NW Europe. He has led multiple large scale, complex projects for European banks on IT and cyber risk, enterprise risk management, sustainability, interbank JV's, strategic planning, business model validation, pricing / marketing analysis, restructuring, advanced data analysis and credit risk management.