BNP Paribas has announced the appointment of Anne Pointet as Head of Company Engagement and a member of its Executive Committee, with both roles taking effect on 1 July 2024. Pointet, who is 48 years old, assumes one of the French banking group's most publicly prominent positions, overseeing the division that manages BNP Paribas's relationship with employees, society, cultural institutions, and broader stakeholder communities. The announcement was made on 28 May 2024 via a press release published on the group's website.
Pointet succeeds Antoine Sire, 63, who has led the Company Engagement department and is stepping back from that operational role to become an Advisor for Impact Economy within the group. Sire's transition to an advisory capacity reflects BNP Paribas's intent to retain his expertise in the bank's evolving approach to sustainable and social finance, while creating space for new leadership at the helm of the department. The overlap between his departure from the role and Pointet's start date on 1 July provides a defined transition window.
HERMANT JOINS THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
In a concurrent move, BNP Paribas confirmed that Elise Hermant, the bank's Head of Communications, has also joined the Executive Committee effective from the same date. Hermant's elevation places the communications function directly within the group's highest decision-making body, giving it formal representation alongside the heads of the major business lines and geographic regions. Her mandate covers the management of BNP Paribas's reputation, messaging, and external communications across its diversified global operations, spanning retail banking in domestic markets, corporate and institutional banking, and investment solutions.
The simultaneous addition of two senior women to the Executive Committee — Pointet taking the Company Engagement leadership and Hermant gaining a committee seat in her existing communications capacity — represents a notable development in the composition of the group's highest governance body. BNP Paribas has publicly committed to improving gender balance at leadership levels across its operations, and the twin appointments reflect that stated objective being advanced in practice at the very top of the organisation, rather than remaining a target articulated only in strategy documents and corporate reporting.
SIRE'S ADVISORY ROLE IN IMPACT ECONOMY
Antoine Sire's new designation as Advisor for Impact Economy positions him to contribute to BNP Paribas's thinking on the intersection of finance and social and environmental outcomes. Impact economy, as a field, encompasses lending, investment, and advisory activities that are explicitly designed to generate measurable positive social or environmental results alongside financial returns, and it sits at the centre of debates about the evolving purpose of large universal banks in the contemporary economy.
BNP Paribas has been active in articulating a strategic role for itself in financing the transition to a more sustainable economy, and Sire's move into an advisory role focused on impact economy suggests the group views that area as one where experienced senior counsel continues to add value even outside a conventional line management structure. The bank did not indicate in its announcement whether further leadership changes within the Company Engagement department or the broader Executive Committee were planned in connection with these appointments, nor did it outline any changes to the department's mandate or reporting lines under Pointet's incoming leadership.