Bain's Julien Faye becomes global financial services lead

Bain & Company Middle East partner and director Julien Faye has been named as the firm’s new global head of financial services.

Veteran consultant Julien Faye has been appointed as the new leader of Bain & Company’s global financial services practice. A partner and director with the global management consulting firm’s Dubai office since its official inception in 2007, Faye brings altogether more than two and a half decades of consulting experience to the table, having also prior to joining Bain spent time as a partner at Accenture as its strategy consulting lead for France, Belgium and Luxemburg.

“Julien was the natural choice to take the helm of our global Financial Services practice,” said Bain & Company worldwide managing partner Manny Maceda. “He is a highly respected leader among major banks and insurers, as well as colleagues across our firm, with a proven track record for helping financial services organisations navigate digital disruption, redesign the customer experience, and plan for evolving competitive and regulatory landscapes.”

An INSEAD graduate, Faye holds expertise across numerous finance segments, serving corporate and investment banks, asset managers, retail & private banking, regulators and other institutions in areas such as business and corporate unit strategies and implementations, IT strategy, digitalisation programs, risk management, performance improvement, post-merger integrations, organisational design and capital market operations among others.

According to his company bio, Faye in addition to his financial services activities coordinates the technology and digital practices of Bain in the Middle East, and has for the past two years headed the firm’s Financial Services practice for the EMEA – a role now taken by Frankfurt-based partner Dirk Vater. Meanwhile, a former global co-head of Bain’s financial services practice, Philippe De Backer, was recently tapped as global practice lead for Arthur D. Little out of Dubai.

Incidentally, at the same time the firm announced Faye’s promotion (which is effective from the 1st of January), Bain also announced the recruitment of Christine Removille as an expert partner on consumer & marketing excellence – with Faye and Removille being former colleagues in the strategy division of Accenture in France, where Faye altogether spent nearly thirteen and a half years. He has also been a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader since 2009.

Among the tasks in his latest role will be to help financial institutions deal with growing competition, both from within and externally. “The sector is at a critical juncture with many struggling to keep up with rising customer expectations, competitive threats from digital natives and new regulations,” said Faye. “Together with a team of talented Bain partners and consultants around the world, I will continue to work with clients to help reignite their growth amid a period of significant industry disruption.”