Laurent Renaud has joined Lyxor Asset Management (Lyxor) as its chief executive officer (CEO) in Japan, effective immediately. He succeeds Toshiro Kubozono as CEO, who has retired after nine years in the role.
Mr. Renaud reports to Lionel Paquin, CEO at Lyxor and locally to Raphael Cheminat, group country head for Japan, Societe Generale. Founded in 1998, Lyxor is composed of two fully-owned subsidiaries of French financial services behemoth Societe Generale Group. As of end of June this year, it was managing and advising US$127.3 billion of assets globally.
In managing Lyxor’s Japan subsidiary, Mr. Renaud has been charged with developing the firm’s franchise locally, through building on its strengths – mainly in the areas of ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and indexing, and multi-management – and is also responsible for further enhancing cross-selling opportunities with the large client base of Societe Generale in Japan. Lyxor believes Mr. Renaud’s in-depth knowledge of the Japanese market will help it cater to the needs of Japanese banks, securities firms, insurance companies and pension funds.
Mr. Renaud has plenty of experience in Japan, having first visited the country as an exchange student at Hitotsubashi University in 1993. After fulfilling his military service as an Overseas Volunteer in Tokyo (detached to a subsidiary of Sapporo Beer), he joined Banque Indosuez S.A. in Paris as an inspector in 1995. In 1996, he returned to Tokyo to work as a Trade Attaché at the French Embassy.
In 2000, Mr. Renaud joined BNP Paribas Securities Japan as part of its newly created corporate finance department, working on M&A transactions and private equity placements. He subsequently moved to the equities and derivatives department as head of the business management team in 2005, leading various new projects to expand the business beyond its structured products franchise. In 2008 he was assigned at BNP Paribas’ group headquarters in Paris as deputy head of FIG International, a coverage team in charge of developing relationships with financial institutions outside Europe, where he focussed mainly on clients in Japan and North America. In 2012, Mr. Renaud joined BNP Paribas Investment Partners Japan Ltd – the Japanese asset-management subsidiary of BNP Paribas – as chief operating officer.