General | Diversity | Biographies | Functioning | Assessment | Board Committees
John Porter
Chief Executive Officer and Managing director (°1957)
For the biography of Mr. Porter, we refer to section 8.6 c) of this Statement.
Manuel Kohnstamm
Director (°1962)
Manuel Kohnstamm is Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for Liberty Global. He is responsible for developing and implementing Liberty Global’s regulatory strategy, public policy, government affairs and corporate communications. Mr. Kohnstamm is an executive officer of Liberty Global and sits on Liberty Global’s Executive Leadership Team and the Regulatory Committee.
Mr. Kohnstamm joined the Europe operations of Liberty Global’s predecessor in September 1999 and held several positions in corporate affairs, public policy, and communications. He was appointed to his current position in January 2012. From 1992 until he joined Liberty Global, Mr. Kohnstamm worked at Time Warner Inc., most recently as Vice President of Public Affairs in Brussels for its subsidiaries Time Inc., Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting. Prior to joining Time Warner, Mr. Kohnstamm worked with the consulting group European Research Associates in Brussels where he conducted macro-economic and policy studies on the telecommunications and defense industries.
Mr. Kohnstamm is a member of VodafoneZiggo’s Supervisory Board as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Global’s subsidiary Telenet Group Holding NV, a Liberty Global subsidiary and a Belgian public limited liability company.
Mr. Kohnstamm is Co-chair of GIGAEurope, an industry association bringing together independent private telecoms companies. In addition, Mr. Kohnstamm is a trustee of the non-profit organization Street Child, a charitable organization focused improving the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the world.
Mr. Kohnstamm graduated in Political Science and holds a Doctorandus Degree in International and European Law from the University of Amsterdam. He also holds a Postgraduate Degree in International relations from the Clingendael Diplomat School in The Hague, and successfully completed the Cable Executive Management Program from Harvard Business School, Boston (MA).
André Sarens
Observer (°1952)
André Sarens has served as a director of the Company from December 2003 until April 2012. Since April 2012, he has been appointed as observer to the board of directors. Mr. Sarens was until October 2017 Grid Participations Manager at Engie, having previously held numerous senior finance and administration positions related to Engie Electrabel’s utility service distribution activities in Belgium. In these capacities, he has represented Electrabel and the mixed intermunicipalities in their business dealings with Telenet from 1999. Mr. Sarens served on the board of directors of several of the mixed intermunicipalities in Belgium and held several board positions in Engie Electrabel affiliates such as Electrabel Green Projects Flanders and Electrabel Customers Solutions.
Lieve Creten
Independent director, representative of Lieve Creten BV (°1965)
Until April 2021, Lieve Creten has been a partner at Deloitte in Belgium for more than 20 years. She was one of the founding partners of the Belgian M&A practice working for national and international investors in various sectors. She headed the Financial Advisory business as managing partner from 2008 to 2019. During this time, she also served as a member of the executive committee of Deloitte Belgium. In addition, she was part of the global executive team of Deloitte Financial Advisory from 2015 until 2021 focusing on talent related matters. Early in her career, in 1994, she briefly worked abroad at Deloitte USA. Lieve Creten is currently a board member, a member of the remuneration committee and chair of the audit committee of Barco NV and CFE SA, a board member and member of the audit committee and remuneration committee of Montea and a board member (Treasurer) of OCB Doctors Without Borders and MSF Supply. Mrs. Creten holds a master’s degree in business engineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) as well as a postgraduate degree in tax sciences. Since 1995, she is a certified public accountant. Lieve Creten has written various articles on M&A and has been a speaker on many events and seminars in the M&A domain.
Jo Van Biesbroeck
Independent director (representing JoVB BVBA) (°1956)
Up to 2015, Jo Van Biesbroeck has been Chief Strategy Officer and Chief International Business Development of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (formerly known as InBev SA and Interbrew) where he also started his career in 1978. Anheuser-Busch InBev is the world’s leading brewer and is amongst the world’s top five companies operating consumer goods. Mr Van Biesbroeck held various positions in controlling and finance and was Senior Vice-President of Corporate Strategy, Chief Business Development Officer, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Chief Sales Officer, and Zone President Western Europe in that order. Between September 1, 2015 and April 1, 2020, Jo Van Biesbroeck was manager and member of the board of RSC Anderlecht. Jo Van Biesbroeck obtained a Master’s degree in Economics at the Roman Catholic University of Leuven. He is chairman of the board of directors of Etex Group and Matexi Group. Furthermore, he serves as an independent and non-executive director of Puratos, Inno.com, the investment company SFI and various non-profit organizations including the ACF cancer fund, Kick cancer fund and Franklinea fund in Swiss. He is also Chairman of Audit and Remuneration Committees.
Charles H. Bracken
Director (°1966)
Charles Bracken is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Liberty Global with responsibility for Group Finance and Treasury operations, including tax and financial planning, procurement and property as well as capital allocation and finance operations of Liberty Global's largest operations, and overseeing its accounting, external reporting and Investor Relations functions. He is responsible for overseeing Liberty Global’s business plan and its focus on customer support systems. He is an executive officer of Liberty Global and sits on the Executive Leadership Team and the Investment Committee.
Amy Blair
Director (°1966)
Amy Blair is Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer for Liberty Global, a world leader in converged broadband, video and mobile communications and an active investor in cutting-edge infrastructure, content and technology ventures, with 33,000 employees across its operations and 85 million subscribers throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.
Amy is responsible for leading Liberty Global’s Human Resource function, including its global People Strategy -a purpose-driven and strategically-aligned approach across talent, organization, culture, engagement, performance management, reward, leadership and internal communications. A member of the Executive Leadership team, Amy oversees critical global people, transformation & change activities resulting from business restructurings and the Company’s over 400 M&A transactions spanning Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe in the last 16 years.
A 30-year industry veteran, Amy joined Liberty Global in its start-up phase in Denver, Colorado and has held numerous international leadership positions including Vice President of Operations Management and Managing Director of Human Resources for European operations, both based in The Netherlands. Today, Amy serves her current role from the company’s Global Headquarters in Denver. She has innovated and transformed the People function at every level, including the creation of the Company’s flagship talent & leadership programs and its women’s leadership network -each fostering a conscious culture of values-based learning. She was instrumental in establishing Liberty Global’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DE&I”) Council, where she plays an active role, in addition to overseeing the Company’s broader DE&I agenda.
Amy serves on the Board of Directors and the Remuneration Committee of Telenet Group Holding NV, a Liberty Global subsidiary and a Belgian public limited liability company. She is also an active sponsor of various industry and civic organizations and serves as Board Member of The Cable Center, Colorado Public Radio and as Advisory Board member for the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver. Amy has also held leadership roles with The WICT Network, focused on empowering women in media, entertainment and technology, and guided the launch of the first two chapters outside of the US, in the UK and continental Europe. She has been recognized as Woman of the Year by Women in Cable Telecommunications Rocky Mountain Chapter.
Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences from The Colorado College and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver.
Dirk Van den Berghe
independent director, representative of Dirk JS Van den Berghe Ltd. (°1963)
Until 2021, Dirk Van den Berghe held top executive positions at Walmart Inc., his most recent one being Executive Vice President and Regional CEO of Asia, Canada and Global Sourcing and in particular, leading Walmart’s investment in Flipkart, a leading e-commerce and fintech platform in India, and overseeing Walmart’s e-commerce partnerships and retail operations in Canada, China and Japan. He was also Senior Vice President and CEO of Walmart Canada from 2014 until 2016. Before joining Walmart, Dirk Van den Berghe was active at Delhaize group (now called Ahold Delhaize NV) between 1999 and 2014 during which he held various SVP positions and was appointed CEO of Delhaize Benelux in 2011.
During the early days of his career, Dirk Van den Berghe was active as a trade diplomat for ten years serving as the Commercial Attache for Belgium in Sofia, Bulgaria and subsequently as a representative of the Flemish Trade and Investment Federation (now called Flanders Investment & Trade) in Bangkok, Thailand and New York, USA. He started his career with a position at Unilever, followed by a job at Metallo Chimique.
Dirk Van den Berghe is currently the non-executive chairman of the board of The Very Group Ltd. (UK & Ireland), non-executive commissioner and chairman of the remuneration committee of GoTo Company (Indonesia) and a non-executive director of the board of directors of the Colruyt Group (Etn. Fr. Colruyt NV). He advises on consumer goods, retail, e-commerce, health, fintech and technology. He was previously a board member of Flipkart, JD.com Inc., Walmart Canada Bank Corp. (now called Duo Bank), Reynaers Aluminium NV, AMS Sourcing B.V., Summit Committee of the Consumer Goods Forum and Export Flanders (now Flanders Investment & Trade EVA).
Mr. Van den Berghe holds a PhD in Economics from the University of National and World Economy (Sofia, Bulgaria) and a master’s degree in business management from the University of Gent (Ghent, Belgium). He has also been a visiting scholar including guest professor positions at McGill University, Hongkong University, IIM Ahmebadabad, Solvay Business school, Ichec and many other universities.
Enrique Rodriguez
Director (°1962)
Enrique joined Liberty Global as Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer in 2018, leading Liberty Global’s technology development and operations teams.
Liberty Global’s technology organization powers the product development and operations as well as tech strategy for common platforms across Liberty’s operating companies and partner markets.
Enrique has over 35 years of experience at high-technology, Fortune 500 global businesses, including TiVo where he was president and CEO, AT&T, Cisco, Thomson, SiriusXM and Microsoft. He is a recognized industry expert in the media, television and Internet service provider business with strong reputation for execution of complex, large-scale, multi-billion-dollar service programs.
Severina Pascu
Director (°1972)
Severina has been Deputy CEO and COO of the combined Sunrise UPC business since November 16, 2020. Prior to this, Severina held several leadership roles within Liberty Global, most recent as CFO and Deputy CEO of Virgin Media. She served as CEO at UPC Switzerland between 2018 and 2020, CEO of UPC CEE between 2015 and 2018, and as CEO UPC Romania between 2010 and 2015. Severina joined Liberty Global in 2008.
Madalina Suceveanu
Director (°1970)
Madalina Suceveanu was appointed Managing Director for Mobile & Cloud at Liberty Global since 1st April, 2022. In this newly created role, she is driving strategy and investment for the Mobile and Cloud domains across LG, accelerating the 5G transformation and the execution of the Converged strategy.
Prior to this, Ms. Suceveanu held various senior leadership positions at Vodafone Group Plc since 2014, including CTO of the European Cluster, Turkey and Egypt and CTO of Vodafone Ireland. She was responsible for overseeing technology strategy execution, technology investment, innovation facilitation and talent management across seven Vodafone markets in Europe as well as in Egypt and Turkey. She was also responsible for technology integration of the acquired Liberty Global Plc operations since 2018 and served as Chief Networks Officer in Germany since October 2021.
Before her career at Vodafone, she held various responsibilities at Orange Romania S.A. between 1997 and 2013, her last one being the Chief Technology Officer, which she exercised for 3 years. Madalina Suceveanu was also member of the board of directors of Vodafone Ireland Foundation, Orange Foundation, Netshare in Ireland and SIRO-Joint Venture with Electricity Company in Ireland.
Ms. Suceveanu holds a Master of Science degree from the Electronic and Telecommunication faculty of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Romania). In 2017, Madalina Suceveanu was recognised as one of the top 25 female technology leaders in the world by Silicon Republic 2017.
John Gilbert
Independent director (°1963)
John Gilbert was formerly a Managing Director and Senior Country Officer for JPMorgan in Europe. John joined JPMorgan in New York in 1985, moved to London in 1999 and retired in 2014. During that time, John spent many years leading JPMorgan's investment banking efforts in the Benelux region as well as directly managing many TMT relationships as a senior banker. Currently, John is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Conservation Fund in the United States. The Conservation Fund has a dual mission to preserve America's most important natural and cultural resources as well as supporting sustainable economic development.
John is a graduate of Duke University (Durham, NC).
