Renewal and appointment of Directors proposed at the General Meeting to be held on May 19th, 2020
At the proposal of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee held on November 5th, 2019, the Board of Directors approved the proposals to renew and appoint Directors ahead of the General Meeting of shareholders to be held on May 19th, 2020.
Mr. Juan Maria Nin Génova, an independent Director since 2017, member of the Risk Committee and the Compensation Committee will be proposed for a second term renewal. A Spanish national and former bank executive, Mr. Nin Génova brings to the Board a well-known banking expertise, particularly in retail banking.
Pursuant to the best corporate governance practices, Nathalie Rachou, an independent Director since 2008, Chairman of the Risk Committee and a member of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee, did not wish to be renewed for a fourth term. As early as spring 2019, the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee began a research process with the help of an outside firm based on the following criteria:
- a great expertise on banking and financial markets,
- a woman
Mrs. Annette Messemer has been chosen. A 55-year-old German national, Ms. Messemer has a long career in finance and investment banking, particularly at JP Morgan Chase and Commerzbank. She is an independent Director of the Board of Directors of EssilorLuxottica.
If the General Meeting follows these proposals, the Board of Directors will remain composed of 41% women and more than 90% independent Directors. It will have an increased international dimension (6 non-French out of 14 Directors). The Board has ensured that, in this way, it will have all the necessary skills to function properly and to carry out its mission of defining the strategy of the Societe Generale group and monitoring its implementation.
Press contacts:
Antoine Lhéritier 01 42 13 68 99 antoine.lheritier@socgen.com
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Biographies:
Juan Maria Nin Génova
Born on March 10th, 1953 - Spanish
A former student of the University of Deusto (Spain) and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (UK). Is a lawyer and economist who began his career as Programme Manager at the Spanish Ministry for Relations with the European Community. He then served as General Manager of Santander Central Hispano from 1980 to 2002, before becoming Managing Advisor of Banco Sabadell until 2007. In June 2007, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of La Caixa. In July 2011, he became Vice-Chairman and Deputy Advisor of CaixaBank until 2014. Juan Maria Nin Génova is Chairman of the Board of Directors: Promociones Habitat (Spain) (since 2018), Itinere Infraestructuras (Spain) (since May 2019). Director: Azora Capital, S.L. (Spain) (since 2014).
Annette Messemer
Born on August 14th, 1964 - German
Ph.D. in Political Sciences from the University of Bonn (Germany) and degrees from the Fletcher School at Tufts University (USA) and Sciences Po Paris.
Started her career (1994-2006) at JP Morgan Chase in the Markets and Investment Banking activities, then at Merrill Lynch (2006-2009) as Managing Director in Investment Banking. In 2010, she was nominated by the German Ministry of Finance to the Supervisory Board of WestLB during the restructuring of the bank. From 2013 to 2018, she was Group Executive at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. Her responsibilities included the coverage of the German corporate and institutional clients as well as the global client steering in the Corporates & Markets Division. Annette Messemer is a member of the Board of Directors of EssilorLuxottica.