Juan Jiménez is a senior advisor at Axis Corporate. He has an extensive career history. Juan brings over 30 years’ professional experience in financial services and risk and regulation consulting. He was a partner at two of the ‘big four’ consulting firms for over 10 years, spearheading risk management solutions for the finance and insurance industries after previously holding executive positions at Banesto and Banco Santander.
Juan has worked at most of the leading financial and insurance institutions in Spain, developing major projects for organizations including Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Mapfre, Ocaso, Santalucia, Catalana Occidente, and Mutua Madrileña, among others. He has also implemented projects for international
organizations including Bancomer, Banorte, and Atradius.
The project types have been linked to improving risk management and regulations that impact financial and insurance businesses: Basel, Solvency II, MIFID II, IDD, and more. He has worked across a broad range of projects including internal risk-modeling validation, pivoting to Basel and Solvency II, preparing risk self-evaluation reports (ORSA, ICAAP), implementation of calculation and reporting tools for Basel and Solvency II, Solvency II auditing, and IDD adaptation in insurance firms. He has also been a member of boards of directors and auditing committees in the finance sector.
- Describe your position at Axis Corporate.
I am a senior advisor in the firm’s Global Risk & Sustainability practice and I advise the business area on the approach to take for solutions together with the partner responsible for the practice. I also foster relations with finance and insurance industry firms, shoring up the company’s branding and positioning it as a travel partner in the business transformations our customers have to take on.
- What do you like most about your job?
The most important thing for me is to have an innovation space to propose crosscutting solutions. After many years of working in large consulting firms and having the opportunity to further my career with the most important firms in the country, I missed work environments where I could give free rein to my imagination and have the opportunity to innovate the business in its broadest sense. As a senior advisor, Axis gives me the chance to leverage my expertise-based vision and implement these solutions to help companies develop and grow their business in a climate of uncertainty like the present one.
- How do you handle this uncertainty?
If experience has taught me anything it is that uncertainty is structural, not circumstantial. There are so many uncontrollable variables in life that uncertainty is an intrinsic feature of life itself. It is becoming structural in the business environment too, and the way to handle it is to be ready to pivot and minimize the potential negative impact. You have to be agile to adapt and have flexible structures and a diversified business model. To reduce uncertainty you also need to make stress exercises into your strategic plans so you can step up to crises with predefined action plans.
- What advice would you give a customer to address the new market challenges?
My humble advice would be not to accept advice, to look at what other companies are doing and ensure that your strategic plan provides for adverse scenarios and alternative plans.
- How do you spend your downtime?
I am mad about sports, especially tennis, and I try to fit in a game every week. My other passion is family time, in the broadest sense. Any excuse will do to organize a meal where we all get together. I have missed it over the past two years.