Musical chairs at the EIF

Date: 11/07/1996

Georges Ugeux, the Belgian banker imported from the private sector in June last year to shake up the European Investment Fund, was recently made an offer he could not refuse.

Ugeux was head-hunted by the New York Stock Exchange to boost the number of European companies issuing shares in the US market. “They set a deadline and he had to say yes or no very fast,” says an insider.

The prospect of living in America close to his sons as the first European with such a senior NYSE post, and with frequent trips promised to London and Paris, was too much for Ugeux to decline.

As a result the new-look EIF has been left in the hands of 66-year-old Thomas Oursin, formerly secretary-general of the European Investment Bank - the very institution Ugeux has been attempting to wrest the EIF away from.

The EIF, now based in a corridor of the EIB, is about to spread its wings and start looking for new premises in Luxembourg.

Oursin's departure has left a vacancy at the EIB to be filled by Francis Carpenter, a dashing official sporting a large Zapata moustache. With Sir Brian Unwin heading the EIB, that puts two Britons at the top.