Laurent Dupuch

Company: BNP Paribas
Position: Algeria country manager

Biography: Laurent Dupuch has been head of the Algeria operations of BNP Paribas since January 2008, when he replaced Francois-Edouard Drion.

He has been with the bank since 1993, having graduated with a masters degree in management at the HEC graduate business school in Paris.

As head of BNP’s Near & Middle East department from 2004 to 2005, he presided over the opening of the bank’s first branches in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. BNP opened a representative office in Algeria, and in 2002 it became the third French bank to offer full banking services in the country. It was the first bank in Algeria to be rated by Fitch Ratings, which gives it a long-term rating of AAA. It has 39 branches in the country and aims to have more than 70 by the end of 2008. At the end of 2007, the bank had more than 2,800 corporate clients and more than 49,000 small business and individual clients, as well as a growing trade finance division.

Contact: laurent.dupuch@bnpparibas.com
Company website:www.bnpparibas.co.uk