People Moves

AXA IM Appoints Global Chief Operating Officer

Editorial Staff 8 June 2023

AXA IM Appoints Global Chief Operating Officer

With a solid grounding in C-suite roles across the financial sector, AXA believes that the new COO will bring invaluable insights to her teams and the management board.

AXA Investment Managers has appointed Caroline Portel as global chief operating officer, effective 1 July. She will be taking over from Laurent Caillot who will pursue a new professional endeavour outside the AXA Group.

Based in Paris, Portel will become a member of the AXA IM management board, reporting to Marco Morelli, executive chairman of AXA IM. Her remit will be to oversee technology, operations, data management, project management, security procurement, facilities and innovation.

Portel has been a programme director at AXA IM since 2022, responsible for the integration of the AXA IM Prime and AXA IM Architas business units. Having initially joined AXA in 1999, Portel held senior positions in functions ranging from investor relations to consolidation and reporting in AXA entities and countries. Most recently, she was CFO at AXA Global Life, the life reinsurance subsidiary of AXA from 2014 to 2018, and then became CFO of Architas Group and CEO of Architas France until 2019. Portel was then appointed CFO and deputy CEO at AXA Global Re, the group’s internal reinsurer, until 2022.

Portel, who graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Electronique in Grenoble (ENSERG) with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, also holds an MBA in corporate finance and accounting from the University of Rochester in the US.

Commenting on her appointment, Morelli said: “Caroline has over 20 years of experience in finance and knows AXA very well, having held several roles in different entities. She will bring invaluable insights to her teams and the management board.” 

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