Charlotte Dennery, a woman of action at BNP Paribas

Posted on Feb 14, 2019 2017 at 1:01Updated on August 6, 2019 at 12:00 am

She is the first woman to hold this position. On Charlotte Dennery’s business card is the title of CEO of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. At the head of 3,000 employees in 15 countries around the world, the manager finances the purchase or rental of professional equipment, from forklifts to fleets of printers, servers or excavators. “What I like is to be grappling via SMEs with the real economy”, she says, warm.

In her office, model trucks stand alongside three refined prints that this diplomat’s daughter brought back from her native Japan. Because, at fifty-one, Charlotte Dennery, who grew up between Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and Brazzaville, where her father, Bertrand Dufourcq, was ambassador, does not fit into any mold. She has a taste for the arts, could have been an archaeologist, does not rule out one day getting involved in politics … “I don’t let myself be locked in boxes”, sums up, with a laughing eye, this mother of three, intrigued by the physics of stars and passionate about 19th century history. “She is very independent, especially in her judgments. He is a free spirit. Which is not so widespread ”, judge Laurent Tréca, who recruited her in 2001 at BNP Paribas.

Her classic and neat look would almost make you forget that Charlotte Dennery has completed the obstacle course many times in the east of France: she graduated from Polytechnique. “Having been a laborer teaches you to react in male circles”, smiles, maliciously, this admirer of Simone Veil, a bit feminist and whose mother, historian and writer, was Secretary of State for Research in the first government of Alain Juppé.

In the family, the bar is high. His brother, Nicolas Dufourcq, is the CEO of bpiIfrance.

Local taxation every 35 hours

His classes? Charlotte, she will do them at the National School of Statistics and Economic Administration. Enough to open for him, in 1991, the doors of INSEE, the time to write, as head of the quarterly accounts division of the nation, some briefs. And above all to enter, in 1993, the Budget Department. “I had the chance at Bercy to work with fascinating teams”, tells the manager who worked there, among others, Isabelle Kocher and Florence Parly. The « chance », the word comes up often in his remarks.

But under the golds of the Republic, she worked, held several positions, including that of head of wage policy and HR strategy for the public service, tackled a hundred subjects: from the accounts of the “Social Security” to taxation local, from the emergence of the RMI to 35 hours in the administration. “It was very exhilarating. It was the heart of the reactor! “breathes Charlotte Dennery, who says to herself “Unable to remain indifferent”. ” She is generous. And she is not the type to pour out ”, confirms Isabelle Bordry, co-founder of Regency and, like her, administrator of the Grand Palais. “She has great human qualities. She is very cheerful, funny, and she does not take herself seriously ”, confides his friend Bertrand Badré, former CEO and former CFO of the World Bank, now boss of the Blue Orange Capital fund. The one who is said to be as whimsical and rigorous esteems herself “Demanding”, “unpleasant”, sometimes in the face of carelessness.

Secrets of the Cold War

From Tokyo, where his family lived in a wooden house, with tatami mats and paper partitions, undoubtedly comes his sense of aesthetics. From Moscow where, in the secrets of the Cold War, diplomats ordered food via Sweden or Finland to be supplied, perhaps comes his thirst for knowledge.

On a daily basis, however, as soon as she finished her studies, she opted for a sedentary career. The course will be vertical. Charlotte Dennery had only two employers, the State and BNP Paribas. And switched to the private sector at the age of thirty-five, when he was offered to join the development and strategy department of the banking group. First in Paris, then in New York, where she found her husband, met at l’X and then boss of a Suez subsidiary in Dallas. She then joined the insurance branch (Cardiff), the multi-management subsidiary (FundQuest), the entity reserved for asset management (BNP Paribas Investment Partners) … and rose through the ranks to general management positions.

Gifted with numbers, she lends her financial skills to several organizations, including the Culture Espace Foundation, whose mission is to promote access to art to children far from culture … or to the association of leaders Women Forum. Between two meetings, three trips and four exhilarating books. Without seeming to stop.

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