KBC Group: Board changes at KBC

Press Release
Outside trading hours - Regulated information*

Brussels, 18 November 2013

Board changes at KBC

In line with a previously established succession plan, Professor Dirk Heremans and Mr Julien De Wilde have stepped down from the Boards of Directors of KBC Group and KBC Bank, respectively.

Professor Dirk Heremans is being replaced by Ms Júlia Király, who until earlier this year had been the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Hungary.

Júlia Király was born in Budapest (Hungary) in 1957. She is a graduate of the Budapest University of Economics (1980), where she went on to gain a Doctorate (1984), and also holds a Ph.D in Economics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Ms Király started her career as a research economist at the Central Statistical Office (1980-1982), before taking up a similar post at the National Planning Office (1982-1989). In 1989, she became CEO and Dean (Banking strategy, Monetary economics, Risk management in financial institutions) of ITCB Consulting & Training (1989-2007). Ms Király then served as Deputy Governor responsible for Financial Stability at the MNB, the Central Bank of Hungary (2007-2013).

She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Credit Bank Ltd. (1995-1996), a member of the Advisory Board of the Supervisory Authority (1997-2000) and a member of the Board of Directors of K&H Bank (1999-2000). She was chairperson of the Postbank and Savings Bank Corporation (2002-2003) and has been a Professor of Finance at the Corvinus University of Budapest since 1993. On 1 October 2013, she was appointed Head of Department at the International Business School of Budapest.

Mr Julien De Wilde is being replaced by Nabil Ariss, former vice chairman of J.P. Morgan in London.  

Nabil Ariss was born in Beirut (Lebanon) in 1961. He is a graduate from HEC Paris (1983) and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (1987).

He started his career in 1983 with the French securities company Jacques François-Dufour, Jean-Louis Kervern & Cie. He joined McKinsey in 1987 as a management consultant, then J.P. Morgan in 1992 in London, where he developed the European corporate finance business with banks and insurance companies and became vice chairman in 2009. He retired from J.P. Morgan in May 2013.

He has been advising corporate and financial institutions for 26 years on strategy, operations, organisation, mergers & acquisitions and capital. He is a member of the board of the Centre for Lebanese Studies, St Antony's College - University of Oxford.

The nominations of Ms Király and of Mr Ariss were approved by the National Bank of Belgium.

Thomas Leysen, Chairman of the KBC Group Board of Directors commented on today's announcement as follows: 'I wish to express my deep gratitude to Professor Heremans and Julien De Wilde not only for their support and commitment to KBC over the past few years, but also for the acuity of their analyses and the wisdom of their advice. I am delighted to welcome Ms Királyand Mr Ariss to the Board. I am convinced that their broad experience and knowledge of economic and financial affairs will enable them to make an important contribution to the further development of KBC.'

For more information, please contact:

Wim Allegaert, General Manager, Investor Relations, KBC Group
Tel [phone]  - E-mail: [e-mail]

Viviane Huybrecht, General Manager, Corporate Communication/Spokesperson, KBC Group
Tel [phone]  - E-mail: [e-mail]

* This news item contains information that is subject to the transparency regulations for listed companies.

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Press release KBC Group 18-11-2013

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