Proparco, the private sector financing arm of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), has appointed Grégory Clemente as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Clemente succeeds Claude Periou, who was CEO from 2002 to 2006 and from 2012 to 2016.

Clemente started his professional career in 1996 at the French Overseas Departments Note-Issuing Bank (IEDOM) in Pointe-à-Pitre, then at this institution’s headquarters in Paris.

In 2000, he joined AFD Group’s Financial Department as a market operator, prior to becoming the Director for market activities in 2005.

He was appointed Director of AFD’s Asia Department in 2011.

In 2014, he became AFD’s Executive Risk Management Director.

Anne Paugam, Chairperson of Proparco’s Board of Directors and CEO of AFD, said: “I would like to thank Claude Periou for his commitment and contribution to Proparco and AFD Group over these years.”

“I am extremely pleased about Grégory being appointed at Proparco’s Senior Management. Since Grégory joined the Group, he has shown that he has strong technical and management qualities. I am convinced that he will be up to the task of addressing the challenges facing our Institution and successfully fulfilling the mandate to develop the private sector,” she said.

Proparco said that Periou will shortly be taking up new functions in Papeete, Tahiti, as Director of the Overseas Departments Note-Issuing Bank in French Polynesia.