Marc Lauer (Foyer Group): A Culture of Change.
After 20 years at Foyer, including 10 as CEO, Marc Lauer recently handled over the reins to Marie-Hélène Massard, who succeeded him in April. This is a change in continuity for Foyer Group, which replaced 60% of its Executive Committee.
What changes are currently taking place at Foyer Group?
We have initiated a broad transition. Two years ago, I informed our shareholders of my intention to step down as CEO in 2025. Marie-Hélène Massard joined us in May 2024 and became the CEO on 15 April 2025. In addition, a whole generation of directors has retired. We witnessed a real renewal, particularly at the executive committee level, where six out of ten members were replaced. We recruited our directors for their skills and for their ability to be true team players, whether they happened to already be working within our Group or not. I am quite proud to note that apart from Marie-Hélène, we successfully recruited our new sales director, our human resources director, our chief legal and compliance officer, our chief risk officer, and our director of operations, internally. The fact that this transition went so smoothly has to do with the culture that we have been able to build and share during the past decades.
“THE EASE OF THIS TRANSITION HAS TO DO WITH THE CULTURE THAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUILD AND SHARE."
How would you define this culture?
Over 20 years ago, we started with a simple observation: “an insurer is a seller of promises.” We defined our values, and we live by them every day. The first is “trust.” It is essential in our industry—internally and externally. Next comes “excellence.” Then “integrity,” the act of being truthful and living out our values. Here, people can say what they think. We don’t always agree, but we empower our employees and encourage them to take initiative, and dare to make mistakes, by providing them the right resources. It is easy to say ‘do it,’ but you have to give people the means to do so. The fourth value is “innovation,” for which we have a whole team that acts as an external innovation coach. Finally, “independence.” We remain a Luxembourg-based Group independent of major international players. We are proud of our status as the largest privately-owned financial group in Luxembourg, with no state participation. More generally, the key to our success since 1922 lies in our entrepreneurial DNA. We truly live our values. “We walk the talk” by applying a highly collaborative approach. For example, prior to COVID, we launched a Lean programme – but in our own way – with internal ambassadors. This program named ‘Elan’ has been highly transformative because everyone understood they were serving clients, whether internal or external. We gained in productivity while also enriching our culture by encouraging our teams to speak up, take ownership, and grow.
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“WE MUST REMEMBER THAT OUR MARKET IS EUROPE!”
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What is your opinion of Luxembourg's insurance sector?
The main risk stems from the regulations which often come from Brussels. To give you an idea, in 2004, we had an internal auditor. Today, the Audit, Evaluation, Risk, and Compliance roles account for 7 to 8% of our staff. I agree with the fact that it was insufficient in the past, but now we’ve gone to the other extreme. When I arrived, we dedicated 80% of our time on entrepreneurship and 20% on compliance. Today, the reverse is the case. In terms of opportunities, we must remember that our market is Europe! Our future depends on the agility of every player in our ecosystem to adapt constantly: businesses, the regulator (the Ministry of Finance), and the supervisory authority (the Commissariat aux Assurances). A clear example of this agility was seen at the recent ACA Insurance Day, when our Minister of Finance announced an initiative in the aim of promptly restoring a “level playing field” in life insurance with our Irish competitors. This move will enable Luxembourger insurers to benefit from tax treatment on fund management that is comparable to the system in place in Ireland.
©DR