Societe Generale has a new face. Slawomir Krupa became managing director of the bank on Tuesday, after fifteen years of reign of Frédéric Oudéa, catapulted to this post in 2008 after the Kerviel crisis.
First elected director at the group’s general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, Slawomir Krupa, 48, was appointed managing director in the process by the board of directors, as planned by the latter in September 2022.
Almost 30 years in the bank
This Franco-Polish who joined the bank with the red and black logo in 1996 is described as direct, even a little “eruptive” according to a former senior manager of the bank. He “has all the skills to run our house”, for his part underlined Frédéric Oudéa during the meeting.
The new leader has on his desk several projects initiated in recent years by his predecessor, such as the merger of the two retail banking networks in France – with Crédit du Nord – under the same red and black banner, SG, or the integration of the company Leaseplan by the automobile leasing subsidiary ALD, whose acquisition was finalized on Monday. “It will be up to him, with the new general management, to pursue these initiatives and further transform the group for the greater benefit of its shareholders, its customers and all of its teams”, commented the Chairman of the Board of Directors. , Lorenzo Bini Smaghi.
A “discounted” price on the stock market
The stock market, “discounted and subject to a certain volatility” by the admission of the outgoing general manager, will also be one of the main projects for the new management team, which will present its strategic orientations at the start of the school year.
The departure of Frédéric Oudéa, one of the oldest bank bosses in Europe, had surprised his announcement a year ago. It marks the turning point of an era, punctuated by crises of all kinds. “This is obviously a very important moment for me”, declared Frédéric Oudéa to the shareholders, after “fifteen years of rare intensity” and “numerous large-scale crises”, from the Kerviel affair in 2008 to the war in Ukraine in 2022. On Tuesday, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi did not fail to praise a “captain for troubled waters”.