Francis Carpenter, new Chief Executive of the EIF

On a proposal from the EIB's Management Committee, the Board of Directors of the European Investment Fund (EIF) has appointed Mr Francis Carpenter as Chief Executive of the EIF. As the EIB Group's subsidiary specialising in equity investments and guarantees in favour of SMEs, the EIF has an innovative tripartite shareownership structure comprising the EIB (61%), the European Union represented by the Commission (30%) and 28 European commercial banks (9%). Mr Carpenter will also assume the role of Advisor to the EIB's Management Committee on Group strategy and negotiations. He will take up his new duties on 1 August 2002.

Commenting on the appointment of Mr Carpenter, EIB Group President Philippe Maystadt said: "As the EIB's Secretary General from 1996 to 2002, Francis Carpenter oversaw the major organisational and operational changes made at the EIB in recent years, especially the creation of the EIB Group. His appointment as Chief Executive of the EIF underscores the importance that the Bank attaches to the role of that institution and the strength of its continued support: indeed, with some 168 equity investments in venture capital funds established in both the EU and the Accession Countries and with a portfolio of EUR 3.96 billion in SME guarantees concluded with 97 banks and financial institutions, the EIF is making a key contribution to the objectives of the Innovation 2000 Initiative (i2i), which we launched in the wake of the Lisbon European Council (March 2000) to underpin the development of a knowledge-based, innovation-driven European economy".

Mr Giovanni Ravasio, Chairman of the EIF Board of Directors, also expressed his satisfaction with the nomination: Mr Carpenter's background, professional competence and considerable experience within the EIB Group makes him the most suitable person to lead EIF in the carrying out of the mission conferred to it by its Statutes and shareholders, notably the pursuit of Community objectives.

Following Mr Carpenter's appointment, the EIB's Management Committee has called on Mr Eberhard Uhlmann to assume the duties of Secretary General alongside his current position of General Counsel of the Bank's Legal Affairs Directorate.

After joining the EIB in 1975 in the Department for Lending Operations in Italy, Francis Carpenter headed the Department for Lending Operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal and the North Sea at the time when Portugal joined the EU (1987). He was subsequently Director of the Credit Risk Department before being appointed Secretary General (July 1996). Francis Carpenter studied at Oxford, in the United States and at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris.

He succeeds Mr Walter Cernoia, Chief Executive of the EIF since the June 2000 Reform launched by President Maystadt, at which time EIF became the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialising in equity investments and guarantees in favour of SMEs. Prior to being appointed Chief Executive of the EIF, Mr Cernoia had been working since 1982 for the EIB first in its lending operations with Spain, then as Director of Operations for the EU Candidate Countries and for the Balkans. Mr Cernoia will join the SanPaolo IMI Group as member of the Management Committee, where he will be responsible for the management of the Group's operations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

For further details, please contact Mr Jacques Lilli, tel.: +352 42 66 88 215, e-mail: j.lilli@eif.org.