NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Apr 16, 2012) - BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking is pleased to announce the appointments of John Bills, Mike Collens and Chris Zammit to its Commodity Derivatives business. John Bills joins in New York as Managing Director, Commodity Structured Origination - Americas, reporting to Simon Dent, Head of Structured Origination. Chris Zammit joins in New York as Director, Commodity Derivatives of Power Trading, and will report to Dora Sung, Head of US Energy Commodities Trading. Mike Collens, joins as Director, Natural Gas trader in Calgary, Canada and will report to Bruce Bianchini, Head of Energy Trading, Canada.
Mr Bills joins BNP Paribas with over 15 years of experience in the commodities business. Prior to BNP Paribas, Mr Bills was with Credit Agricole where he was responsible for Commodity Structured Origination for the Americas. He will be an integral part of BNP Paribas' growth in the structured commodity business in North American power, coal and oil & gas related businesses.
"BNP Paribas is very committed to the continued strength of our Commodity Derivatives platform," commented Marc Fontaine, Head of Commodity Derivatives - Americas. "John will work closely with the bank's Project Finance and Corporate Finance businesses to develop integrated hedging, financing and advisory solutions for clients, another way to bring the best, customized solutions to our customers," he added.
Mr Zammit joins BNP Paribas as a Director with 16 years of experience in financial services and 12 years in the US electricity and natural gas derivatives markets. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Mr Zammit helped various firms grow their US electricity market franchises. Most recently he spent six years with J.P.Morgan where he was a senior trader and manager and also helped to grow the firm's US power and natural gas sales and trading platform.
As for Mr Collens, he comes to BNP Paribas from Calgary-based Societe Generale Energy Inc. He will focus on regional trade strategies in coordination with the bank's natural gas trading group as well as providing trading support for ETC marketing clients.
"Chris and Mike's experiences throughout the industry will make them very pivotal parts of the platform at BNP Paribas as we anticipate the ever changing requirements of our strong client franchise. Their hires, as well as the recent additions of Meg Bhat, Albena Miladinov and Alex Lam who have joined the power and gas trading desk, further confirm the bank's steadfast commitment to continuing to grow this business," commented Fontaine.
BNP Paribas was awarded Energy Risk magazine's 'Derivatives House of the Year' award and the 'House of the Year, Precious Metals' award in 2011. The bank remains one of the strongest and best established commodity houses in the industry and has provided its strategic client base with a broad range of commodity hedging services including futures execution and clearing since 1985.
BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking
BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment Banking employs around 20,000 people in over 50 countries and services 14,000 corporate and institutional clients worldwide.
BNP Paribas CIB excels in:
Derivatives - where it is one of the leading global players in rates, credit, forex, commodity and equity derivatives
Capital markets - where it is one of the top European houses in both ECM and DCM (bond, securitization, convertibles and equity issuance)
Structured finance - where it is amongst the leaders in acquisition, export, project, energy and commodity finance globally
www.cib.bnpparibas.com
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is one of the best rated banks in the world*. The Group has a presence in more than 80 countries and more than 200,000 employees, including more than 160,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its three core activities: Retail Banking, Investment Solutions and Corporate & Investment Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across the Europe-Mediterranean zone and boasts a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Investment Banking and Investment Solutions activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas and solid and fast-growing businesses in Asia.
*Rated AA- by Standard & Poor's.