Breaking Through

Chapter 13MixCity and Women's Leadership Initiative

Interview with Marie-Claire Capobianco, Head of BNP Paribas French Retail Banking

Why has BNP Paribas implemented a mentoring program?

Several parts of BNP Paribas have set up a mentoring program to offer tailored support to our high-potential employees. Each career step—recruitment, development, change of job—works toward building the group's culture and we invest a lot in these steps. Thus, for a long time now, we have run a “Management Academy” where our managers can study for their professional development. With the launch of a range of mentoring programs, we have undertaken another step in professional development, since we can now offer high added value to those employees selected to take part. In addition to the professional skills and expertise acquired through studies and through doing the job, mentoring adds knowledge and understanding of the whole professional landscape. It allows the mentees to hone their understanding of the role of job position vis-à-vis others or simply to build self-confidence and a desire to improve. This personal growth, which the mentees experience through their relationship with their mentors, can be a determining factor at a key moment in their careers. For women, who are still too few in the group's senior management, I strongly believe that mentoring is highly effective, because, much more than men, women need to learn to express the full range of their capabilities and their ambitions. ...