Caroline Courtin is appointed Head of Diversity & Inclusion for the BNP Paribas Group from 1 April 2018, succeeding Barbara Levéel, who becomes Global Head of Human Resources for Global Markets and Financial Institutions Coverage.
Caroline Courtin’s varied international career at the BNP Paribas Group and her extensive experience in human resources in several of the Group’s businesses, combined with her in-depth understanding of the issues surrounding Diversity and Inclusion, will be key to continuing to promote Diversity and Inclusion within the BNP Paribas Group and its businesses.
“I’d like to thank Barbara Levéel for her commitment and enthusiasm in structuring and implementing BNP Paribas’ policy on Diversity and Inclusion. In the space of four years, Barbara has established the main pillars of our policy and has built up the Group’s resources in this field, through an approach based on dialogue,” said Yves Martrenchar, Head of Group Human Resources and member of the BNP Paribas Executive Committee. “Caroline Courtin will continue to uphold our values in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, focusing in particular on continuing to foster a respectful working environment which offers equal opportunities to all staff and which values differences at the Group and across all businesses. This is key to our success as an organisation.”
Caroline Courtin succeeds Barbara Levéel who joins the BNP Paribas Group’s Corporate and Institutional Banking division as Global Head of Human Resources for Global Markets and Financial Institutions Coverage. In this role, Barbara will continue to promote diversity, with a strong focus on the gender balance targets which the Group has set for the Human Resources department (which has a preponderance of female employees) and for the Global Markets business (which has a preponderance of male employees) as part of a three-year partnership with HeForShe, a United Nations initiative launched in 2014.
Diversity is a core element of the BNP Paribas Group’s Company Engagement initiatives. For over ten years the Group has been working to promote diversity and prevent discrimination. Its Diversity & Inclusion policy, which is firmly directed towards equal opportunities and inclusion, extends to all countries where the Group is present and is implemented via a range of measures set out in company agreements. Staff – especially management personnel – receive training on diversity and inclusion that help them tackle stereotyping issues. On the gender equality side, the Bank conducts regular assessments to ensure that progress is being made on workplace equality between men and women.
The Bank also has policies in place to promote the hiring, retention and full workplace integration of employees with disabilities, providing training, raising awareness among employees across the Group, and increasingly making use of service providers from the Protected Workers sector.
BNP Paribas has also entered into partnerships with a number of specialist organisations, and encourages staff to set up employee networks in order to foster inclusion.
Reporting to the Human Resources division under the responsibility of Yves Martrenchar, Caroline Courtin will also be part, as Barbara Levéel was, of the Company Engagement team, led by Antoine Sire, Director of the Company Engagement Department, and member of theBNP Paribas Executive Committee.
Caroline Courtin
Caroline Courtin joined BNP Paribas in 1995, holding a number of roles at Corporate and Institutional Banking and the Inspection Générale (Internal Audit department) in France, London and New York. Caroline began her Human Resources career in 2006 as
Head of HR for the international Fixed Income business. She was then appointed Head of HR at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in 2009, before moving to the Group’s asset servicing specialist arm
BNP Paribas Securities Services as Director of Human Resources for France (2012) and then Global Head of Human Resources (2015). Caroline was a member of the Executive Committee of BNP Paribas Securities Services, which employs over 10,000 staff worldwide. Caroline Courtin graduated in Business Administration from the University Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris) and in Finance from the Institute of Political Studies
in Strasbourg.
BNP Paribas is a leading bank in Europe with an international reach. It has a presence in 73 countries, with more than 196,000 employees, including around 149,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main activities: Domestic Markets and International Financial Services (whose retail-banking networks and financial services are covered by Retail Banking & Services) and Corporate & Institutional Banking, which serves two client franchises: corporate clients and institutional investors. The Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporate and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the European leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail-banking model in Mediterranean countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and International Financial Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific.