Former BNP Paribas CEO Baudouin Prot joins BCG France

Baudouin Prot, former Chairman and CEO of BNP Paribas, has joined consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group in France as Senior Advisor.

After completing his studies at the HEC (L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales) and ENA (l'Ecole Nationale d'Administration), Baudouin Prot began his career in 1976 with the French Treasury and Industry ministry. Seven years later, in 1983, he joined Banque Nationale de Paris Continentale – a subsidiary of BNP, then known as Banque Nationale de Paris – where he was appointed deputy manager. Prot climbed up the ranks, named head of retail banking in 1987, Chief Operating Officer in 1996, and ultimately Chief Executive Officer in 2003, a role which he fulfilled for eight years. Between 2011 and 2014 Prot served as Chairman of the bank – he formally stepped down, after offering his resignation, on 1 December 2014.

Under Prot’s leadership BNP Paribas has, despite the colossal impact of the financial crisis, booked impressive growth. Between 2003 and 2014 the French bank tripled its shareholders’ equity (from €25.7 billion to €77.1 billion), doubled revenues (from €18 billion to €39 billion) and doubled headcount (from 89,000 to 185,000 employees). Testimony to his leadership, Prot is one of the few bank bosses that have managed to remain in their seats during the economic crisis and its aftermath. “Beyond the remarkable growth of BNP Paribas at the service of its clients, and the reinforcement of its financial strength, we are grateful to Baudouin Prot for his total commitment during the financial crisis of 2007-2011 when he faced on a daily basis, with his teams, situations which were unprecedented in the financial sector. His performance at the helm of the bank has been excellent,” BNP Paribas stated on the day he said farewell to the bank.

Nearly a year down the line Prot has decided to affiliate himself with the Boston Consulting Group, one of the globe’s most renowned management consulting firms. Prot has been appointed as a Senior Advisor, and will focus mainly on clients in the financial services sector, one of BCG’s key markets in France and globally. "His experience with leading a large international group, complemented with his banking expertise, will prove a great addition to BCG’s service portfolio,” writes BCG France in a press release.

Commenting on his new role, Prot says: “I am delighted to take up this new challenge in a team which is widely recognised for its consulting excellence.”