FundRock announces Xavier Parain as new CEO

FundRock announced the appointment of Xavier Parain to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Xavier will assume the new role on 7 January 2019.

Xavier Parain said: “I am honoured and excited to join FundRock, the leading independent third party Management Company and AIFM in Europe. FundRock has demonstrated impressive growth over the last years with presence in major fund centres and a reputable client portfolio. All of this has been achieved thanks to a highly skilled team which I am very much looking forward to collaborating with, building on this success and jointly pursuing further growth opportunities arising from the current regulatory framework.”

Xavier Parain is bringing deep knowledge of the regulatory landscape and the funds ecosystem in particular and a solid expertise in regulatory topics as he joins from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French financial markets regulator, where he held the position of Managing Director at the Asset Management Directorate.

Xavier has been with AMF for the last 7 years, during which he has developed strong relationships with European regulators and has collaborated with them on several occasions, most notably in the case of Brexit through numerous working groups. During his time at AMF, Xavier had 600 management companies, 12 000 investment vehicles, 350 investment services providers, 40 depositaries, 40 crowdfunding platforms and 5 000 financial investment advisors under his supervision. He has represented the AMF at several international regulatory bodies such as ESMA, OICV and ESRB.

Prior to his role at AMF, he had a long experience in the banking and asset management sectors and has held executive roles within major international organisations. Among others, he has served as the CEO of FundLogic, Morgan Stanley’s funds and hedge funds distribution platform and President of Merrill Lynch Invest, Merrill Lynch’s asset management firm specialising in structured funds.

Laurent Bouyoux, President and Founding Partner at FundRock’s shareholder, BlackFin Capital Partners, commented: “We are very pleased to welcome Xavier Parain as the new CEO of FundRock. His experience at European regulatory bodies' levels will directly benefit FundRock's clients, helping them to navigate through a complex and constantly evolving regulatory context. He will also bring his expertise in funds structuring, management and distribution, inherited from his times at BoA Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

He will pursue the commercial development towards global asset managers and support the deployment of FundRock's footprint in continental Europe, the UK and Ireland.”

Xavier holds an engineering degree from the ENSTA (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Techniques Avancées) and is an alumnus of the Ecole Polytechnique.