BELGIUM- Aon Consulting has announced the appointment of Lieven Alaert to lead its new international benefits practice in Belgium. In the new role he will develop and promote the employee benefits consulting services aimed at Belgian multinationals.

He will also coordinate employee benefits issues for the Belgian subsidiaries of foreign multinationals. Based in Brussels, he reports to Anne Thiry.

He joins Aon from the John Hancock IGP Network, where he has worked for fourteen years in the fields of international benefits, multinational pooling and Captive reinsurance, focussed at the Scandinavian market.

Aon has been recruiting in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands this year in a bid to increase its international benefits business.

Ruud Kistemaker, the man responsible for developing Aon's international benefits practice in continental Europe, says continental European companies have traditionally left benefits as a responsibility to local managers.

He adds that the international accounting standard IAS19 and its obligation to disclose details of assets and liabilities has led many multinationals to pay more attention to their overseas benefits. “We see the whole area of international benefits as a growth area,” he says.