People moves: SocGen hires new strategy head, RBS loses CFO, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

Sébastien Proto is set to join Societe Generale

Sébastien Proto is set to join Societe Generale as its new head of strategy, the bank said in a statement. He will start on September 3, reporting to Frédéric Oudéa, chief executive officer (CEO).

Proto will replace William Kadouch-Chassaing, who was appointed chief financial officer (CFO) in May. Proto will also become a member of the group’s management committee.

Proto’s responsibilities will include putting the bank’s ‘Transform to Grow’ 2017–2020 strategic plan into action. According to a 2017–2018 report by Societe Generale, the plan comprises five priorities: to achieve average annual revenue growth of more than 3% between 2016 and 2020; to transform all businesses and functions, especially in terms of digital technology; to bring the cost/income ratio down to less than 63% in 2020; to sell or close business lines that have not reached critical mass or do not generate synergies; and to bring the group in line with “the highest control and compliance standards in the banking sector”, as well as integrate and develop the bank’s businesses while fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities.

Proto joins Societe Generale from Rothschild & Cie, a French company providing financial advisory, wealth and asset management, and merchant banking services. As managing partner, Proto covered key accounts, particularly in media, banking and financial services, technology, consumer goods and business services sectors.

Between 2007 and 2012, Proto served in several government roles, supporting the French budget and labour ministers. He started his career in 2004 at the General Inspectorate of Finance, a French government auditing and supervisory body.

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NatWest Markets, the trading division of Royal Bank of Scotland, has hired Jeremy Arnold, chief risk officer (CRO) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Nomura, Risk.net understands.

His new role is not yet clear, but he is likely to replace Martyn Brush, who left his position as CRO of NatWest Markets in December.

Risk.net understands Nomura is in the process of selecting an interim replacement for Arnold. Nomura and RBS declined to comment.

Before taking up the CRO role in 2015, Arnold was head of equity market risk at Nomura, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining Nomura, he was head of market risk at Investec.

Meanwhile, RBS CFO Ewen Stevenson is leaving the bank to join UK rival HSBC as its finance director, according to a statement by HSBC. The move has been widely expected.

Stevenson has been CFO of state-backed RBS for four years. Before this he co-headed Credit Suisse’s European investment banking division, as well as the bank’s global financial institutions group.

Stevenson will replace Iain Mackay at HSBC, who is retiring after an 11-year stint at Europe’s largest bank, eight of them as finance director.

RBS has been hit by a wave of C-level departures recently. In addition to Brush’s exit, in November the bank announced its CRO David Stephen was leaving. Australian bank Westpac said it had hired him for the same role, with a start date “during 2018”.

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Paul Newman, best known as a co-founder of Icap’s energy and commodities brokerage, retired on June 30. He was a director at the company, managing clients for Nex Markets, an Icap offshoot that supplies electronic execution platforms for professional traders.  

Paul Newman

Newman founded the business in 1990 together with Michael Spencer, Nex’s chief executive. The new venture, Intercapital Commodity Swaps, became Icap Energy in 1999. Newman headed Icap Energy as chief executive for 25 years, opening offices in New York and Singapore.

In 2015, he was appointed chairman of Icap Energy, a role he held until Icap sold all of its voice-broking businesses in December 2016. Icap rebranded to Nex Group in early 2017 and Newman became a Nex director. Nex agreed to be bought by the CME Group in March this year.

Newman will remain a non-executive director at two of Nex’s associated companies: shipbroking business Howe Robinson Partners and Volbroker TFS/Icap, a foreign exchange options business.

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Neil Barry has left his position as head of compliance at Standard Chartered, a spokesperson says. His last day was June 7.

Barry was originally placed on leave on March 16 following an investigation into whistle-blower reports that concluded his “managerial style, behaviour and language” towards some staff was inappropriate, the company said in a note circulated internally and shared with the media.

Though the investigation also concluded his dismissal was not warranted, Barry and the bank agreed that in the circumstances it was best for him to leave, according to the note.

Tracey McDermott, head of corporate, public and regulatory affairs at Standard Chartered, will continue to lead the compliance function, which she took over when Barry was placed on leave.  

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Santander has appointed Keiran Foad as its CRO, replacing José María Nus, the bank said in a statement.

Foad has served as deputy CRO since March 2017. Previously, he was CRO of Santander UK, which he joined in 2012.

Nus will switch to advising Santander’s executive chairman, Ana Botín, on strategic projects related to risk and will also oversee the bank’s restructuring work.  

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BNY Mellon has named Catherine Keating chief executive of its wealth management arm, it said in a statement. She will also become a member of BNY’s executive committee.

Keating is due to join on July 9 and will report to the chief executive of BNY Mellon Investment Management, Mitchell Harris. She will be based in New York and will also join the investment management leadership team.

Keating will be in charge of setting the strategic direction of BNY Mellon’s wealth management business, including ongoing expansion, according to the statement.

Previously she was president and chief executive of Commonfund, a non-profit, global institutional asset manager. Before that, she spent almost two decades at JP Morgan Chase in roles including Americas head of investment management, chief executive of the US private bank and global head of fiduciary and wealth advisory services.

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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has reshuffled its leadership as part of broader business changes across the bank.

Nigel Williams

Nigel Williams has been named CRO and is scheduled to join the bank on November 5. His banking experience includes 15 years at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group as CRO and head of institutional banking in Australia and New Zealand.

Williams will replace David Cohen, who will become deputy CEO. Cohen’s earlier role was general counsel for the CBA.

The moves also include the appointment of Andrew Hinchliff as group executive for institutional banking and markets, effective from August 1. He has been with the CBA since 2015, when he joined as executive general manager for global markets. Previously he held several banking and markets roles at Goldman Sachs.

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Deutsche Bank has named Ian Dorrington and Manfred Affenzeller as new co-heads of US leveraged finance, according to a source.

Affenzeller has worked for Deutsche since 2005, while Dorrington joined in 2011. They are both based in New York, the source says.

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Trading participants of European Energy Exchange (EEX), a power and gas bourse, have elected a new Exchange Council to represent their interests. The council has a three-year term and consists of 24 members from different groups.

The new members of the utilities and trading companies group are: Michael Bonde, Uniper Global Commodities; Paul Dawson, RWE Supply & Trading; Bernd Dinauer, Engie Global Markets; Jens Göbel, Eni Trading & Shipping; John Grey, EDF Trading; David Poupé, CEZ; Andrea Siri, Edison Trading; Bernhard Walter, Energie Baden-Württemberg; and Leonardo Zannella, Enel Trade.

The group of banks and financial service providers is represented by: Wolf von Bernuth, Energy & More Energiebroker; Jesper Severin Johanson, InCommodities; Michel de Keréver, Hydroption; and Roderick Timmer, Cross Options International.

Vincent van Lith from ABN Amro Clearing Bank was elected to represent the members of the EEX clearing house, while Pierre Chevalier from DB Energie will promote the interests of commercial consumers.

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The board of directors for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has approved the renewal of chief executive Charles Li’s contract for a further three-year term from October 16, 2018, it said in a statement.

Li joined HKEx in October 2009 and became chief executive in January 2010. Previously he was China chairman at JP Morgan.

Hong Kong’s stock market regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, has approved the re-appointment.

Trevor Spanner, chief information officer at HKEx, is leaving, but will stay on as a senior adviser until the end of the year to aid a smooth transition. Spanner was named chief information officer last June. He was previously chief operating officer and group risk officer.

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Italian market regulator Consob has named lawyer Giulia Bertezzolo as its general secretary, it said in a statement. Her five-year-term will begin on September 1. She will work in Consob’s Rome and Milan offices.

Bertezzolo is a specialist in financial regulation and administrative law and public management. Previously she worked as a public officer for the European Commission, in the directorate general for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union.

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Jean Pierre Gerard

Jean Pierre Gerard has joined New York Life Investment Management in a newly created role of head of business intelligence and data analytics, the company said in a statement.
Gerard will report to Kirk Lehneis, chief operating officer of NYLIM.

Most recently, Gerard was head of analytics for North America at Mastercard, where he was in charge of delivering analytics projects for major banks around the world.

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The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation has elected two new members to its board of directors: Claudine Gallagher, Americas head for the securities services business of BNP Paribas; and Joseph Molluso, chief financial officer of trading and market-making firm Virtu Financial, it said in a statement.

The DTCC is a post-trade infrastructure provider. Its board of directors plays a key role in the oversight of the firm and comprises 20 people, 13 of them representing clearing agency members such as banks and investment institutions.

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Electronic fixed-income trading platform OpenDoor Securities has named Marie Patton as its co-head of sales and chief administrative officer, and Lauren McFall Gardner as co-head of sales and managing director. As well as collaborating with McFall Gardner on sales and marketing, Patton will organise day-to-day operations for the firm’s chief executive and co-ordinate between heads of departments, the firm said in a statement.

Marie Patton

Patton is based in Jersey City and McFall Gardner in Northern California, a spokesperson says. Both new hires will report to OpenDoor’s chief executive, president and co-founder Susan Estes.

Before OpenDoor, Patton spent almost 40 years at Icap in senior e-commerce positions. McFall Gardner was previously the director of West Coast sales for Nex Group and a senior sales executive at interest rate swaps platform trueEx.

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Trading technology and execution services firm Dash Financial Technologies has appointed Glenn Lesko as chief growth officer.

He is based in New York and reports to chief executive Peter Maragos. Lesko is charged with driving the firm’s revenue growth globally, both organically and inorganically.

Lesko most recently served as CEO of agency broker Bloomberg Tradebook. Before that he spent nearly 10 years at Instinet, serving as CEO of Instinet Asia and later head of Americas equities.