Renewals and appointments of board members proposed to the general meeting to be held on 20 may 2025
The Board of Directors of Societe Generale, upon the proposal of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee, approved the proposed renewals and appointments of board members ahead of the Shareholders’ General Meeting to be held on 20 May 2025.
The Board of Directors invites the General Meeting to be held on 20 May 2025 to vote to replace two female directors (Mrs Lubomira Rochet, resigning since 12 September 2024, and Mrs Alexandra Schaapveld, end of her third term as an independent director) and to renew three male directors (Mr. William Connelly, Mr. Henri Poupart-Lafarge and Mr. Sébastien Wetter).
Mrs. Ingrid-Helen Arnold will be proposed for her first term as an independent Director. Aged 56 and of German nationality, Mrs Ingrid-Helen Arnold will bring to the Board sound expertise in information systems and digital transformations. Mrs. Ingrid-Helen Arnold had a long career at SAP SE, from 1996 to 2021, where she was Chief Information Officer and member of the Global Management Committee. She was also Head of Digital Transformation (Chief Digital Officer) and member of the Executive Committee of Südzucker between 2021 and 2024 and then interim CEO of KAKO-Elektro since June 2024. Mrs Ingrid-Helen Arnold is a Director of TUI and was a Director of Heineken.
Mr Olivier Klein will be proposed for his first term as an independent Director. Aged 67 and of French nationality, Mr Olivier Klein will bring to the Board renowned expertise in retail banking and an in-depth knowledge of macroeconomic issues. He is currently Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Lazard Frères Banque, an entity which covers the support functions for investment banking (Lazard Frères) and for asset management (Lazard Frères Gestion). Mr Olivier Klein was Chief Executive Officer of BRED for 10 years and a member of the management board of BPCE in charge of commercial banking (supervision of the Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne networks). From 2019 to 2023, he was a member of the supervisory board and risk committee of group BPCE. He teaches financial macroeconomics and monetary policy at HEC.
Mr William Connelly, an independent Board member since 2017, Chairman of the Risk Committee since 2020 and member of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee since 2017, will be proposed for a third term as a Director. Aged 67 and of French nationality, Mr William Connelly brings to the Board his recognised financial experience, particularly in investment banking, insurance and asset management, an international vision and his experience in the management of large groups. His attendance rate at Board and Committees meetings is 100%.
Mr Henri Poupart-Lafarge, independent Director since 2021 and Chairman of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee since 2023, will be proposed for a second term as a Director. Aged 55 and of French nationality, Mr Henri Poupart-Lafarge has had a long career at Alstom, of which he has been Chief Executive Officer since June 2024, after having been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2016 to June 2024. He brings to the Board exceptional experience in the management of a large international group and the vision of corporate clients. His attendance rate at Board meetings has averaged 89% since the beginning of his term of office, and 93% on average for the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committees.
Furthermore, the term of office of Mr Sébastien Wetter, Director representing employee shareholders, expires in 2025. The employee shareholders, solicited during the second half of 2024 by means of a single election, propose to renew him, together with Mrs Emmanuelle Pételle as a replacement. Mrs Emmanuelle Pételle is President of ASSACT, association of employee shareholders of Societe Generale. The Board of Directors, on the proposal of the Nomination and Corportate Government Committee, has decided to approve this renewal proposal. Mr. Sébastien Wetter has been working for 27 years as an employee at Societe Generale. This experience covers several functions in retail and investment banking related to business development and client satisfaction. He also held the position of Secretary General of the Group’s General Inspection and Audit Division. He was Global Chief Operating Officer in the Financial Institutions Sales Department and banker of major international accounts. He was appointed for the first time as a Director representing Societe Generale’s employee shareholders at the end of the Shareholders’ Meeting of 18 May 2021. Since 2023, he has been a member of the Audit and Internal Control Committee.
If the General Meeting approves these proposals, the Board of Directors will comprise 42% women (5/12), 92% independent Directors (11/12) excluding the three Directors representing employees, and 40% Directors who are foreign nationals (out of the 15 Directors sitting on the Board of Directors, seven nationalities are represented, including Directors with several nationalities).
The Board has ensured that, with this composition, it will have all the necessary skills to function properly, to carry out its tasks of defining the strategy of the Societe Generale group and monitoring its implementation.
_ Biographies available in the attached .pdf
Press Contacts:
Jean-Baptiste Froville_+33 1 58 98 68 00_ jean-baptiste.froville@socgen.com
Fanny Rouby_+33 1 57 29 11 12_ fanny.rouby@socgen.com
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