Société Générale Asset Management has announced the appointment of Olivier Lecler as chief executive of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SGAM Alternative Investments. Lecler, 41 and a graduate of France's Ecole Polytechnique, began his career at Insee, the country's National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, as editor of the Insee Bulletin on the macroeconomic outlook.

In 1996, he joined the Société Générale group as strategic studies manager in the finance and development division and in 1999 was appointed finance and development director of the group's online retail financial services subsidiary Fimatex, now Boursorama, of which he became deputy managing director in 2003.

In January 2006, Lecler joined SGAM  first as head of finance and operations, then as deputy to the deputy general manager for operations, and was chairman and chief executive of SGAM Banque, a banking entity within the group that specialises in structuring for alternative investments.

Société Générale Asset Management is one of the world's largest asset managers with EUR319bn of assets under management at the end of March in equities, fixed income, balanced and alternative investment, where SGAM has a total of EUR55.8bn in assets, including EUR41.8bn managed by SGAM Alternative Investments.

The SGAM AI Hedge Fund Group manages funds of hedge funds, multistrategy and single strategy hedge funds with EUR7.6bn in assets ands has 136 employees at its headquarters in Paris and offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Other alternative investment divisions within SGAM bring the group's hedge fund assets total to EUR9.1bn.

With a presence in Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, SGAM AI Structured Asset Management Group manages EUR31.4bn through guaranteed structured products, structured credit products, index funds and exchange-traded funds and cash management. SGAM AI's Paris-based real estate investment management business manages EUR1.1bn of assets within core products, opportunistic funds and specialised funds.

SGAM AI launched its Private Equity platform in 1999 and now offers a range of funds covering new technologies and biotech venture capital, expansion capital, buyout vehicles and funds of funds, investing in Europe and emerging markets. SGAM Alternative Investments had EUR1.7bn in private equity assets under management at the end of March.