Engineer heads Société Générale

Alexander Beziaud, aged 41, will head Société Générale for six months.

Before his arrival in Cameroon, he was employed in the banking group SG, where he held various positions.

He was appointed between June 2011 and May 2015 as Managing Director of Crédit du Nord marketing.

Frédéric Oudéa, CEO of the Société Générale Group visited in the subsidiary, from October 27 to 29, 2015, for the recognition of the work done by the teams of the French bank based in Cameroon.

"An unprecedented visit and honor for this banker especially as during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the presence of that bank in Cameroon, Frédéric Oudéa could not make the trip because of a busy schedule," reported Le Quotidien de l’Economie on Wednesday, November 25, 2015.

According to the newspaper, Alexander Beziaud was educated in France and Germany. From 1985 to 1992, he attended collège et lycée Saint Pierre Chanel in France, where he obtained his Bachelor C. Then, from 1992-1994, he made his classes in lycée Henri Poincaré de Nancy in France, from which he archieved Prépa Scientifique, which opened the doors of l’Ecole centrale de Paris.

After a few years of study, he got an engineering degree. In 1996, he joined the Technische Universität München in Germany, where he earned another degree in engineering. His parchment in hand, the general manager of the SG Cameroon made his first professional steps in Germany.

During the first two years sanctioning his entrance into the world of work, he practiced in this country, Europe's largest economy, within UFB Locabail Deutschland (Köln), the German subsidiary leasing of PNB Paribas where he served in the management controller position, said the paper.

He integerated thereafter with Societe Generale, including inspection of the French bank, where he evolved between 2000 and 2007 in France and abroad. Later, the engineer joined Laydernier Bank, a subsidiary of Crédit du Nord, where he was appointed Vice President with specifications for directing the commercial side.

This experience will be from 2007 to 2011. After 16 years of experience in banking, Alexander Beziaud had mastered in, "risk management, finance, capital markets, project management, consulting and management."

Now head of SG Cameroon, Alexander Beziaud has several challenges. "This bank today boasts a net profit of 4.8 billion CFA francs obtained in 2014, and an extension of its network today with 32 branches scattered across the country.

It is a good performance that the bank must certainly keep up with, based on the work of its former CEO, Jean-Philippe Guillaume, who, despite the strike that shook the bank under his reign, made a good performance during the three years as the head of the SG Cameroon.

Alexandre Beziaud will also expand the digital and social networks, while ensuring the security of systems, data and transactions. "This mobile strategy fits well into the logic of a nearby bank with its customers," explained the newspaper.

According to Le Quotidien de l’Economie, the SG Cameroon has already marked its territory, showing its credibility by supporting the first international Eurobond arrangement of Cameroon.

"The process which led to a sum of 750 billion FCFA was closed on November 19, 2015. If the results achieved by nearly 98%, are considered mixed by several experts, this shows that the challenges are great for Alexander Beziaud, which will, to an extent, keep the bank in the forefront of best banking institutions in Cameroon," the newspaper disclosed.