WorldStage– Marie Namias has been working boardrooms and pulling off strategic stunts across France since age 23. So extending her reach within the French financial sector —BRED, BPCE (France’s second largest banking group) Eurogroup—could have been a breeze those years.
And she’s forged a twosome, for 25 years, with Nicolas Namias, a BPCE big honcho French media considers a wheeler-dealer plying the French civil service and the finance sector. Their relationship sure does more than complement.
If Guaranty Trust Group CEO Segun Agbaje’s claim—beefing up corporate governance with a nonexecutive director—deserves some trust, Marie, then, fits the bill. And a lot more into the bargain.
Her experience and connections could guarantee GTCO straddle the Parisian bureaucracy and financial market. It’s a good thing if the Nigerian tier-one bank could also seal mega deals just rubbing shoulders with BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole, and others.
It’s possible—within Marie’s network.
Her husband Namias now chairs the board of BPCE, having spent 14 years there and in its financial service arm Natixis. He’d earlier inked a decade in France’s civil service, including serving as ex-Prime Minister Jean Marc Ayrault’s technical adviser.
