Eiffage CEO de Ruffray put forward as SocGen board candidate

PARIS (Reuters) – Societe Generale said on Friday that its board will propose that shareholders elect Eiffage Chief Executive Officer Benoit de Ruffray as an independent board director at its general meeting in May.

De Ruffray, 56, has led the French construction firm, which is part of the country’s blue-chip and mid-cap stock index SBF 120 since January 2016 and currently holds no other mandate as board member in any listed company, France’s third-biggest bank said.

Three other board appointments will be put to the vote at the meeting on May 23.

They are those of SocGen’s incoming CEO Slawomir Krupa, who was appointed last September; Beatrice Cossa-Dumurgier, the chief operating officer at French digital music company Believe and Ulrika Ekman, a Swedish and American national who held various positions at U.S. investment bank Greenhill & Co.

If elected by SocGen’s shareholders, the four new board members will replace outgoing CEO Frederic Oudea, Kyra Hazou, Gerard Mestrallet and Juan Maria Nin Genova.

These board appointment proposals come on the heel of a top management reshuffle proposed by Krupa, who is also set to formally take the reins of the French lender on May 23.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Sharon Singleton)