Henri Bonnet elected Komerční banka's new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Press release

9/9/2009
1:00 PM

Today, Komerční banka's Supervisory Board elected Mr Henri Bonnet to the Board of Directors with effect from 10 September 2009. Subsequently, Komerční banka's Board of Directors elected Mr Henri Bonnet as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and appointed him as the Chief Executive Officer with effect from the same day. The Czech National Bank has assessed Mr Henri Bonnet's professional competence, credibility and experience and granted its consent to Mr Henri Bonnet holding the position of a member of the Board of Directors of Komerční banka, a.s.

Henri BONNET (60) holds a Law Degree from Poitiers University. He has held a variety of post within the Société Générale Group, both in the international network (South Korea, Brazil, and Germany) as well as the Corporate Banking Division. In 1997, he was appointed Country Manager for Germany. In 2001, he was appointed Executive Vice President, Deputy Head of the Specialised Financial Services within the Société Générale Group. Mr Bonnet will continue to serve on the Société Générale Group's Management Committee.

Henri Bonnet replaces the current Chairman and CEO, Laurent Goutard (48), who will take the position of head of the French Distribution Network and deputy head of retail banking in France (BDDF) within Société Générale Group in Paris, with effect from 1 November 2009. Mr Goutard will also continue to serve on the Société Générale Group's Management Committee.

With effect from 11 September 2009, Henri Bonnet will also replace Laurent Goutard as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Modrá pyramida stavební spořitelna, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Komerční banka.

Komerční banka's Supervisory Board also re-elected Peter Palečka (49) today to Komerční banka's Board of Directors for another four-year term of office, with effect from 7 October 2009.

Peter Palečka was born in 1959. He has been with Komerční banka since 1998, serving on KB's Board of Directors since 1999. Previously he worked at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Trade and also served as the Czech Republic's permanent representative to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. Peter Palečka also holds the position of Vice President of the French-Czech Chamber of Commerce.

Komerční banka is one of the best run universal banks in Central Europe. It provides comprehensive services to clients in the areas of retail, corporate, and investment banking. The Komerční banka Group's 8,890 employees serve 1,636,000 clients, who can use an extensive network of 397 points of sale throughout the country. Komerční banka currently operates 680 ATMs and more than 966,000 of its clients use one of direct banking channels.

Komerční banka is part of the Société Générale Group, one of the largest banking groups in the euro zone (in terms of market capitalisation), whose 163,000 employees serve more than 30 million individual clients worldwide.