The appointment marks a return to Finance Watch for Mr. Philipponnat, who served as its first Secretary General from 2011 to 2014 and before that led the project to found the association.
Benoît Lallemand, Secretary General of Finance Watch, said:
“I am delighted to welcome Thierry back to the Finance Watch family. Thierry’s exceptional ability to lead a team of research and advocacy officers will greatly increase our potential for impact. Thierry oversaw the launch of Finance Watch as a credible counter-weight to the financial lobby and helped establish its reputation for high quality policy analysis and technical advocacy. His appointment comes as our association increases its scope, reach and ambition. With the risks to financial stability once again increasing and environmental and social concerns rising up the political agenda, a growing Finance Watch is as indispensable as ever.”
Thierry Philipponnat, Head of Research and Advocacy of Finance Watch, said:
“It is with great pleasure that I will once again put my capacity at the service of an organisation that I consider essential. I am impressed at how under Benoît’s leadership Finance Watch has adopted a more complete strategy, adding solid outreach components to the foundation of technical expertise and financial sector experience.
“We are witnessing today the rise of a particularly promising regulatory agenda based both on the objective of financial stability (prudential) and sustainability (purpose), with inclusion as the indispensable link to ensure that entire categories of citizens are not left on the side of the road. I look forward to contributing to make Finance Watch develop further for the benefit of society and to working with a great team under Benoît’s direction.”
ENDS
For further information or interview requests, please contact:
Charlotte Geiger, Senior Communications Officer at Finance Watch, at charlotte.geiger@finance-watch.org or at 0032/(0) 2 880 0441.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Curriculum Vitae, Thierry Philipponnat
After graduating from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and training as an economist (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies en économie), Thierry Philipponnat started a career in finance in 1985, holding successively the following positions: corporate banker at BFCE (Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur), options and convertible bonds trader for O’Connor & Associates, head of structured products at Exane, executive director in charge of equity derivatives for French-speaking Europe at UBS, deputy-head of equity financing structuring at BNP Paribas, and global head of equity derivatives of Euronext.liffe. As part of this last activity, he was a member of the executive committees of both Euronext (Paris) and LIFFE (London).
In 2006, Thierry Philipponnat crossed into the NGO world, campaigning and lobbying on behalf of Amnesty International, with a particular emphasis on the impact of the financial sector on human rights. He was later elected as an Executive Board member of Amnesty International France.
In 2011, he founded the European NGO Finance Watch in Brussels, which he managed as its first Secretary General until 2014. Subsequently, he became Chairman of the French Sustainable Investment Forum (FIR) and Director of the economic think tank Institut Friedland.
Thierry Philipponnat is a member of the Board of the French Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers, AMF) and a member of the Sanctions Committee of the French Banks and Insurance Companies Supervisor (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, ACPR). In July 2019, Thierry Philipponnat was appointed Chair of the AMF’s new Climate and Sustainable Finance Commission.
