SocGen private banking names new senior managers

Published: November 9, 2009

SG private banking, the wealth management arm of Société Générale, has appointed two new senior managers: Eddy Abramo as CEO of SG private banking (Middle East) and Eric Lorentz as managing director and global market manager for Arab high and ultra-high net worth clients.

Abramo will be responsible for the private bank in the Middle East through its offices in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In particular, he will supervise the development of products and services for Arab and Indian private clients.

He joined the Société Générale Group in 1997 as a discretionary portfolio manager for SG private banking in Paris and remained in this position until 2002, when he joined Société Générale asset management, where he was responsible for creating a discretionary management product offering. In 2006, he returned to SG private banking as global head of the Hedge Fund Advisors centre of expertise.

Based in the UAE, Lorentz will lead and coordinate the worldwide marketing activities of SG private banking for the Arab clients of its offices in Europe and the Middle East.

He started his career in 1985 with Citibank Bahrain as a foreign exchange trader before running several of the bank's treasury operations in Africa. In 1992, he joined Citibank private bank in New York where he assumed responsibility for its Swiss, French and Benelux clients before moving to JP Morgan in 1994 where his role focused on the Middle East. Starting in 2001, Lorentz led the development of Barclays' private banking business in the Middle East supervising the London, Geneva and Dubai teams. He then returned to the Gulf in 2006 to establish several wealth management initiatives in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.