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Slawomir Krupa

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"You cannot be successful without doing something that gives you intellectual satisfaction... Don't choose banking for the wrong reasons. Choose banking for the intellectual kilos of the job every day and the quality of the relationships you are able to build... Make sure you always stay true to yourself and your values. There is no true success without staying true to yourself."

— Slawomir Krupa[1]

Overview

Slawomir Krupa
Born1974 (age 50–51)
Burgas, Bulgaria
CitizenshipFrance, Poland
EducationInternational relations
Alma materInstitut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po)
OccupationBanker
EmployerSociété Générale
Known forLeading Société Générale's strategic turnaround in the 2020s
TitleChief Executive Officer of Société Générale
Term2023–present
PredecessorFrédéric Oudéa
Board member ofBoard member, Société Générale; Chairman, French Banking Federation; President, European Banking Federation
Children1 daughter
Websitehttps://www.societegenerale.com/en/sg_gouvernance_member/slawomir-krupa

🏦 Slawomir Krupa (born 1974) is a Franco-Polish banker who has served since May 2023 as Chief Executive Officer of Société Générale, France's third-largest listed banking group.[4][5] A career executive at the bank with a brief entrepreneurial interlude, he previously headed its Americas arm and later its Global Banking and Investor Solutions division before being chosen to succeed long-time CEO Frédéric Oudéa. Known for a direct management style and a cautious, balance-sheet-focused strategy, Krupa has been tasked with restoring investor confidence in a group that has long traded at a discount to European peers while navigating cost-cutting, regulatory pressure and growing expectations on climate finance.[6][7]

Early life and education

🌍 Polish-Bulgarian origins. Krupa was born in 1974 in Burgas, Bulgaria, to Polish academic parents and spent his early childhood in Kraków during the final decades of communist rule.[4] When he was six, his family emigrated to France and settled in Lille, where his mother became a linguistics professor and his father a language teacher, providing an intellectually oriented upbringing in which education and adaptability were strongly emphasised.[8]

🎓 Sciences Po training. After completing his secondary schooling in France, Krupa enrolled at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), where he studied international relations and graduated in 1996.[8] Although his formal curriculum centred on politics and history, he later recalled that a formative finance course at the school first sparked his interest in banking and exposed him to capital markets.[8]

🧠 Multi-disciplinary outlook. Krupa has credited Sciences Po's multi-disciplinary approach with teaching him to analyse problems from several angles rather than in "black and white", a way of thinking he says has remained central to his decision-making as a banker and executive.[8] He has also described his immigrant background and exposure to different political systems as factors that shaped a pragmatic worldview and made him wary of ideological extremes.[9]

Early career at Société Générale

🏛️ General Inspection and first steps in banking. Krupa joined Société Générale in 1996 straight out of university, entering the bank's elite General Inspection programme as a junior auditor.[10] The programme, which rotates young inspectors through assignments across the group, gave him early exposure to a wide array of businesses and geographies and acquainted him with the bank's risk, control and governance frameworks.[4]

🚀 Entrepreneurial detour in e-finance. In 1999, at the age of 25, Krupa left the bank to found an internet start-up in the field of e-finance in Eastern Europe at the height of the dot-com boom, basing the venture in Poland to tap into his native region.[8][10] The start-up ultimately struggled as the technology bubble burst, and he has since described the experience as both humbling and formative, giving him first-hand exposure to failure, risk-taking and the demands of building a business from scratch.[8]

🧩 Return to SocGen and early leadership roles. Krupa rejoined Société Générale in 2002, returning to the Inspection Générale where he rose to the management committee by 2005 and deepened his understanding of the group's global operations.[10] In 2007 he moved into the front office as chief of staff at the corporate and investment bank, a role that put him close to senior management and involved him in strategic projects during the run-up to the global financial crisis.[10]

🌐 Strategy chief and regional responsibilities. From 2009, Krupa served simultaneously as head of strategy and corporate development and as chief executive for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) within the corporate and investment bank, overseeing growth initiatives and reorganisations across emerging markets.[10] This period established his reputation internally as a "fixer" capable of untangling complex operational issues while balancing risk, profitability and local regulatory constraints.[4]

International leadership and rise through the ranks

🗽 Head of SG Americas. A major turning point in Krupa's career came in January 2016, when he was appointed chief executive officer of SG Americas, the New York-based arm of Société Générale.[10] At the time the bank's U.S. operations were facing tighter post-crisis regulation, middling profitability and the aftermath of past compliance issues, including large fines over sanctions and benchmark manipulation.[4][11]

🧾 Regulatory clean-up and profitability in the U.S. In New York, Krupa led a multi-year effort to streamline the Americas platform, reduce risk exposures in volatile trading activities and strengthen internal controls and relationships with U.S. regulators, notably the Federal Reserve.[4][12] Under his tenure, the unit's profitability and stability improved, enhancing the group's credibility in the United States at a time when several European peers were still struggling to meet supervisory expectations.[4]

🏙️ Head of Global Banking and Investor Solutions. In January 2021, amid a broader management reshuffle, Krupa returned to Paris to join the group's executive committee as head of Global Banking and Investor Solutions (GBIS), which comprises Investment banking and markets activities.[10][13] The division had recently suffered heavy losses in structured products during the market turmoil of 2020, prompting a strategic rethink.

📊 Risk reduction and turnaround of the investment bank. As GBIS chief, Krupa moved quickly to trim risk-weighted assets, exit less profitable niches and refocus on areas where Société Générale had stronger franchises, in line with a plan he described as delivering "profitable and sustainable growth".[4][10] Within roughly eighteen months, the investment bank became the group's main engine of earnings, posting the fastest pre-tax profit growth among major French peers and benefiting from a rebound in equities trading.[4] This turnaround significantly bolstered his standing with the board and was cited as a key factor in his eventual promotion to group CEO.[4]

Appointment as chief executive of Société Générale

👔 Succession race and break with tradition. In September 2022, long-serving CEO Frédéric Oudéa announced that he would not seek a new term, triggering a high-profile succession process at Société Générale.[14] Contrary to expectations that favoured Sébastien Proto, a senior executive with a background in the French civil service, the board chose Krupa, marking a break with a long tradition of appointing chiefs drawn from the country's grands corps and the National School of Administration.[4][14]

🇪🇺 Cosmopolitan profile and board support. Krupa, who holds both French and Polish citizenship and whose family had been living in New York prior to his appointment, was seen as something of an outsider to the Paris establishment but as an insider to the bank itself.[4][14] Board chairman Lorenzo Bini Smaghi cited his "vision and leadership" and strong grasp of markets, while former colleagues emphasised his problem-solving skills and ability to "take people with him" on strategic changes.[4]

📅 Taking the helm in 2023. Krupa formally took over as group chief executive on 23 May 2023, at the age of 48.[5][4] He assumed leadership of a bank that had been through multiple restructurings and scandals over the previous decade and whose market valuation lagged European peers, with shares trading at around 30% of tangible book value in early 2023.[6]

Strategic plan and market reaction

📉 Mandate to restore profitability and clarity. Upon taking office, Krupa was tasked with improving profitability, simplifying Société Générale's business portfolio and restoring investor confidence in France's third-largest listed lender.[6] He signalled early that there would be no immediate pursuit of transformative mergers, instead stressing that his priority was to focus on capital strength, cost discipline and operational efficiency — what he dubbed the "boring basics" of banking.[4][6]

🗺️ 2026 strategic plan and cautious targets. In September 2023, after several months of internal work, Krupa unveiled a new 2026 strategic plan that he described as "realistic" and deliberately sober in its assumptions.[6] The bank guided investors to expect flat to modest annual revenue growth of 0–2% through 2026 and set a return on tangible equity target of 9–10% by that date, alongside a core Tier 1 capital ratio comfortably above 13% and a shareholder payout ratio of 40–50%.[6] The objectives were less ambitious than some previous targets and implied that Société Générale would remain less profitable than several European rivals in the medium term.

💸 Negative share price reaction. The market reaction to the plan was swift and severe: on the day of its presentation, 18 September 2023, Société Générale's share price fell by more than 9%, wiping out roughly €2 billion in market value, as analysts criticised what they saw as underwhelming revenue prospects and a more demanding capital target.[6] Jefferies and other brokers highlighted the lack of growth, the increased capital buffer and the lowered profitability ambitions as reasons for their cautious stance.[6]

🧭 "Promise less, deliver more" approach. Krupa defended the strategy as the right course for the bank "for decades to come", arguing that credibility depended on setting targets that could be delivered rather than making bolder promises that might later be missed.[6] He framed his approach as one of promising less and delivering more, contrasting it with prior periods in which management had, in his view, over-promised and under-delivered. This stance, while disappointing some investors, was consistent with his reputation as a blunt, long-term oriented manager.

Cost-cutting, restructuring and portfolio simplification

✂️ Large cost-reduction programme. Central to Krupa's strategy was an €1.7 billion cost-cutting plan to be implemented by 2026, representing about 8% of Société Générale's cost base.[6][15] Measures included completing the merger of the Crédit du Nord network into the main French retail bank, accelerating digitalisation in international units, simplifying the organisational structure and overhauling IT systems.

🏢 Job cuts and union reactions. As part of this drive, the bank announced in early 2024 plans to cut around 900 positions in its French headquarters and support functions, largely through natural attrition and voluntary departures.[15][16] The cuts prompted concern among French labour unions, which criticised lay-offs at a time when the group was returning to profit, but there were no prolonged strikes. Internally, the programme contributed to a shift in tone towards a more demanding, efficiency-oriented culture.

📦 Asset disposals and focus on core activities. In parallel, Krupa pursued a simplification of Société Générale's perimeter, divesting non-core or capital-intensive businesses such as certain African subsidiaries, an equipment finance division and UK and Swiss private banking units, while reinforcing areas like online banking through Boursorama and auto leasing via ALD's acquisition of LeasePlan.[4][17] The disposals were intended to free up capital and reduce complexity, even though they temporarily weighed on reported revenues.

📈 Improving cost-to-income and early financial results. By late 2024, there were signs that the cost-cutting and portfolio reshaping were gaining traction. Third-quarter 2024 results beat analyst expectations, helped by a rebound in French retail banking and a double-digit rise in equity trading revenues, and investors welcomed the stronger discipline on expenses and capital.[7] Management emphasised progress towards a cost-to-income ratio target below 60% by 2026 and reiterated its commitment to a prudent balance-sheet stance.[6][18]

Performance under Krupa and investor perceptions

💹 Share price evolution and revised targets. Despite these operational improvements, Société Générale's overall stock performance under Krupa initially lagged the wider European banking index, reflecting persistent market scepticism about its earnings power and strategy.[7] Responding to early progress on cost objectives and capital generation, management modestly revised profitability guidance, targeting around 9% return on equity for 2023 instead of 8%, while reiterating longer-term goals for 2026.[18]

🏦 Business model adjustments and partnerships. On the investment banking side, Krupa promoted an "originate-to-distribute" model that relies less on the group's balance sheet, and he agreed a joint venture in cash equities and research with AllianceBernstein to strengthen the U.S. franchise while limiting capital usage.[4][6] Within retail and specialised financial services, he doubled down on Boursorama's digital banking growth and on ALD's expansion in vehicle leasing, presenting these as scalable, capital-light engines of future earnings.[15][7]

📊 Ongoing market scepticism. Analysts and some investors have continued to question whether the relatively conservative plan is ambitious enough to re-rate the stock, with some commentators calling for more radical moves such as a cross-border merger or further large-scale disposals.[4] Krupa has consistently played down the prospect of transformational M&A, arguing that the group can create value as a stand-alone institution by improving efficiency, reallocating capital to higher-return businesses and delivering stable, through-the-cycle performance.[6]

Compensation, industry roles and philanthropy

💶 CEO pay package. Upon his appointment as chief executive in 2023, Société Générale's board set Krupa's annual fixed salary at €1.65 million, an increase of €350,000 compared with his predecessor.[19] He is eligible for an annual variable bonus targeted at 120% of base pay and for long-term incentive awards linked to financial and non-financial performance indicators such as profitability, cost control and capital ratios.[19][20]

📈 Relative position among European bank chiefs. In his first full year as CEO, Krupa's total remuneration has been reported at around €5 million, including fixed salary and variable components, making him one of the better-paid banking CEOs in France but still well below compensation levels at major U.S. banks and some large European rivals.[20][21] Commentators have noted that his remuneration reflects both the complexity of the turnaround task and regulatory and cultural constraints on pay in the French market.

🏛️ Leadership in banking associations. Beyond his role at Société Générale, Krupa holds prominent positions in industry bodies. In September 2024 he became chairman of the French Banking Federation, representing French banks in national debates on regulation and financial policy.[22] In early 2025 he was elected president of the European Banking Federation, giving him a platform in Brussels to advocate for a more integrated European capital market and what he describes as a balanced regulatory approach that preserves banks' competitiveness while safeguarding stability.[23]

🎭 Cultural and charitable involvement. Krupa serves as vice-chairman of the Albertine Foundation in New York, a non-profit organisation that promotes French-American cultural and educational exchange linked to the Albertine bookstore and cultural centre.[5] He has also supported charities such as Imagine for Margo, a French organisation dedicated to children's cancer research, for which he organised fundraising initiatives, including charity runs, during his time in the United States and upon his departure back to France.[24]

Personal life and management style

👨‍👩‍👧 Family and cosmopolitan identity. Krupa holds dual French and Polish citizenship and is fluent in French, Polish and English.[4][11] He met his wife, a Polish-born concert pianist, during a posting in Poland in the early 2000s, and the couple have one daughter. For much of the 2010s the family was based in New York due to his role at SG Americas, maintaining ties to the United States even after his return to Paris.[11][5]

🗣️ Direct and "Anglo-Saxon" leadership style. Colleagues and observers often describe Krupa's management style as direct, action-oriented and at times "Anglo-Saxon" in a French banking context, reflecting both his years in the U.S. and his Central European roots.[4][11] Former SocGen investment banking head Jean-Pierre Mustier, one of his early mentors, has remarked on his capacity to "move forward" and bring teams along with him on difficult decisions.[4] Compared with his predecessor, seen as more consensus-seeking, Krupa is known for blunt communication and a willingness to challenge internal orthodoxies, attributes that have earned him both respect and occasional unease within the organisation.

⛵ Interests and hobbies. Outside the office, Krupa is reported to be an enthusiastic sailor, particularly keen on catamaran regattas, a pastime he developed while living near the water in New York.[11] He has likened skippering a racing boat with a crew to managing a trading floor, stressing the importance of quick reactions and teamwork under changing conditions. He also enjoys distance running and has participated in charity runs linked to cancer research causes.[24] Despite the visibility of his role, he maintains a relatively low public profile, preferring to spend time with family and colleagues rather than on the Paris social circuit.[9]

💬 Leadership philosophy. In public remarks, including talks at his alma mater, Krupa has emphasised authenticity and intellectual engagement as key to a career in finance, warning students not to choose banking for the wrong reasons and insisting that "there is no true success without staying true to yourself".[8] He has said that his role as CEO is to "enable others' greatness" rather than to cultivate personal power, and that he encourages open debate within teams while maintaining clear accountability for results.[8]

Controversies and challenges

📊 Strategic scepticism and merger debate. The muted market reaction to Société Générale's 2026 plan and the sharp share price fall on its announcement highlighted investor doubts about whether Krupa's cautious strategy can significantly improve valuation.[6] Some analysts and academics have argued that the group may ultimately need to consider mergers or more radical restructuring to achieve scale and efficiency comparable to larger European competitors, a path Krupa has so far resisted in favour of incremental portfolio optimisation and partnerships.[4]

🌍 Russia exit and legacy risk issues. Although Krupa was not CEO when Société Générale took a substantial loss on its exit from the Russian bank Rosbank in 2022, he has had to manage the post-transaction reallocation of capital and ensure that lessons are applied to future geostrategic risk decisions.[4][6] Earlier legacy issues, including the Jérôme Kerviel rogue trading scandal and multiple compliance settlements, also colour perceptions of the bank; as head of SG Americas, Krupa had been involved in negotiations with U.S. authorities to resolve some of those matters and has since emphasised a stricter culture of risk management and compliance.[4][11]

👷 Workforce anxiety and internal culture. The cost-cutting programme, including job reductions and limits on external consultancy spending, has raised concerns among employees and unions about workload and morale.[15][16] While there has been no major labour conflict, internal surveys have reflected a mixture of anxiety and cautious optimism, with some staff welcoming clearer priorities and others wary of what they perceive as a more pressurised, performance-driven culture compared with earlier eras.[7]

♻️ Climate policy and activist criticism. Krupa's approach to climate finance has drawn criticism from environmental groups. At the May 2023 annual general meeting, his first as CEO, activists from Reclaim Finance and ShareAction urged Société Générale to move more quickly in ending financing for new oil and gas developments and aligning lending policies with the goals of the Paris Agreement.[25] Krupa acknowledged the scale of the climate challenge but described the energy transition as "a complicated subject", arguing for a gradual approach focused on client transition plans rather than an abrupt halt to fossil fuel financing, which activists criticised as insufficiently ambitious.[25]

🌱 Climate commitments and ESG positioning. Under pressure from stakeholders, Société Générale has tightened some of its policies since 2023, including announcing that it would cease financing new upstream oil and gas field developments and significantly increasing its sustainable finance targets for the coming decade.[26] Krupa has emphasised that the group sees itself as a leading arranger in green and sustainability-linked financing, but activist organisations continue to monitor its implementation of climate commitments and to call for tighter criteria on fossil fuel clients.[25]

⚖️ Regulatory debates and political positioning. In his roles at the French and European banking federations, Krupa has taken part in debates over banking regulation, capital requirements and potential windfall taxes, generally advocating robust but proportionate rules that avoid unduly disadvantaging European banks relative to U.S. competitors.[23] He has tended to avoid strong public positioning on broader political or social issues, instead presenting himself as a pragmatic moderator between regulators, policymakers, shareholders and the banking industry.

Legacy and assessment

🔮 Long-term ambitions and open questions. Krupa has framed his tenure as a long-term effort to turn Société Générale into a simpler, more resilient and more profitable European banking group while preserving its role as a pillar of French finance.[6][9] Supporters credit him with tackling long-standing cost and complexity issues and with bringing a more forthright, execution-oriented culture. Critics question whether his cautiously conservative strategy and incremental reforms will be sufficient to close the valuation gap with peers in an industry experiencing rapid technological and competitive change. As of the mid-2020s, the answer to whether he can "restore Société Générale's shine", as one French profile put it, remains a central question for investors and observers of European banking.[9]

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World Economic Forum panel \"Are Banks Ready for the Future?\" featuring Slawomir Krupa at Davos 2024
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Slawomir Krupa's talk on the Bang stage at Bpifrance Big 2025 about Societe Generale and the future of banking

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References

  1. ↑ "Slawomir Krupa: There is no true success without staying true to yourself". Sciences Po American Foundation.
  2. ↑ "My role at Societe Generale is to enable others' greatness". Sciences Po American Foundation.
  3. ↑ "My role at Societe Generale is to enable others' greatness". Sciences Po American Foundation.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 "Krupa, hard-driving veteran entrusted with reviving Societe Generale". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "Slawomir Krupa". Société Générale. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 "SocGen shares plummet after new CEO's strategy disappoints". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "SocGen jumps after CEO shakes up top team, rival BNP falters". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 "Slawomir Krupa: 'There is no true success without staying true to yourself'". Sciences Po American Foundation. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "Son plan pour sa banque, son enfance en Pologne… Les confidences du nouveau patron de la Société Générale". Le Point. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 "Executive committee biographies" (PDF). Société Générale. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 "Slawomir Krupa". Wikipédia (French). Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  12. ↑ "Societe Generale's Slawomir Krupa on rebuilding the bank in the US". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  13. ↑ "Slawomir Krupa". World Bank Live. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "At Societe Generale, a break with tradition as a new boss is chosen". Le Monde. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 "Societe Generale to cuts 900 jobs in France". Finextra. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Societe Generale plans job cuts in France to trim costs". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  17. ↑ "SocGen to sell UK and Swiss private bank units for €900mn". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Société Générale retail arm outshines lacklustre investment banking". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Communication post Board of Directors' meeting - 01/03/2024" (PDF). Société Générale. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Combien gagnent vraiment les patrons des banques ?". Dogfinance. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  21. ↑ "Combien gagnent les patrons des plus grandes banques occidentales ?". L’Agefi. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  22. ↑ "Slawomir Krupa to become Chairman of the French Banking Federation from 1 September 2024". French Banking Federation. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Slawomir Krupa elected new EBF President". European Banking Federation. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "La collecte de Slawomir Krupa". Alvarum. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 "Société Générale AGM: a new boss, but no improvement for the climate". Reclaim Finance. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  26. ↑ "COP 29: Societe Generale Boosts Sustainable Finance Goal". FinTech Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
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