BNP Paribas Asset Management has confirmed its US ambitions with the appointment of Pierre Lapomme as chief executive officer of BNP PAM US.

Lapomme's main mission will be to manage the BNP PAM teams in the USA and to accelerate the development initiatives of the company. Based in New York, he will report directly to Gilles Glicenstein, chief executive officer of BNP PAM.

BNP PAM's current USA operation comprises a New York-based business development team and its subsidiary FFTW, specialising in international bonds management, as well as a Philadelphia-based subsidiary CooperNeff Advisors, specialising in quantitative strategies.

"BNP Paribas Asset Management has real ambitions in the United States and Pierre Lapomme's experience is an additional asset to our development in this market," said Giles Glicenstein, CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management. "The American market offers numerous growth opportunities both in production and distribution."

Before joing BNP PAM, Lapomme, 43, managed the equity capital market department at Crédit Lyonnais, then at Calyon in Paris. Prior to taking up that role in January 2001, he spent eight years in charge of the US equity department at Crédit Lyonnais Americas in New York. And prior to that, he was in responsible for a portfolio of listed companies within the primary markets department of the equity markets division of Crédit Lyonnais in Paris.

Background notes: BNP Paribas Asset Management is a major player in fund investment and distribution in Europe with EUR 196.3 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2004. More than 1,400 professionals work in the asset management business in approximately 20 countries. Investment teams are present in all the major world financial centres, including Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The investment teams are specialised by major asset classes, management styles and geographic zones.