Sofia Merlo is the new head of group human resources and a member of the executive committee at BNP Paribas. She succeeds Yves Martrenchar, who is presently the senior advisor and will superannuate in May, 2021.
Merlo joined the French international banking group almost three decades ago, in 1985, handling corporate clients at the head office and running the Bank’s business centre for the South-West region in France.
In 2000, she joined the HR team of the Group, and within four years went on to head ‘career management’ for the Group. In the over four years that she spent in this position, from 2004 to 2008, she managed to successfully launch various diversity policies for the Group. As head of individual career management at the BNP Paribas Group, Merlo was in charge of managing the career for the top executives, handling succession planning as well as corporate training.
She joined the French private banking business in 2009 and a year later was elevated to the position of head, French Private Banking.
From 2012 onwards, she co-headed the wealth management business globally. She was responsible for the wealth-management activities in Europe (France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland), Turkey, Morocco and the US.
A member of the Board of Directors of BNP Paribas Fortis, Merlo is also part of the Board of BMCI in Morocco, and member of the Board of BNP Paribas Polska, in Poland.