Gide announces the appointment of its new Executive Committee. Xavier de Kergommeaux and Stéphane Puel were elected as Senior Partner and Managing Partner, and will form the firm's new leading team alongside partners Renaud Baguenault de Puchesse, Nadège Nguyen and Emmanuel Vital-Durand, as well as Frédérique Misk-Malher, secretary-general. The Committee will take office in January 2018.

As a premier international law firm and the first to have originated in France, Gide strives to become one of the top European players in business law. In continuing to implement the reforms of these last few years, the new Committee will focus on three main areas: the permanent search for providing added value to its clients, legal innovation against a backdrop of in-depth market change, and further developing internal and external group spirit.

Xavier de Kergommeaux, Senior Partner, states: "It is an honour to have been elected as chair of the Executive Committee. With Stéphane Puel and the other Executive Committee members, we will look to strengthen Gide's leadership. Our headquarters' move into new premises in 2018 is testament to the new dynamic we wish to build upon in the coming years: better synergies between our teams to offer solid cross-disciplinary and international legal support".

Stéphane Puel, Managing Partner, adds: "This new mandate will be the chance to prove that Gide's model is adapted to a complex and uncertain environment with increasingly fast innovations. Building on our strong profitability, we will invest in each of our priorities to build the most suitable solutions for our clients and our teams".

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Xavier de Kergommeaux, 54, is elected as Senior Partner. Xavier was Gide's Managing Partner from 2004 to end 2009 for three consecutive mandates. A member of the firm's Banking & Finance practice group, he specialises in asset-backed financing, securitisations, covered bonds, structured finance, trusts and defeasance transactions. He has advised arrangers on major financing operations for amounts exceeding 6 billion euros per operation, and is the regular counsel to most credit institutions active in France. He advised the shareholder banks of the Société de Financement de l'Economie (SFEF), a refinancing vehicle set up in October 2008 to support French credit institutions, on their equity participation, and assisted the SFEF with the implementation of loans and financing to credit institutions. Xavier was elected member of the Paris Bar Council Board in January 2016, in charge of the Finance Commission.

Stéphane Puel, 46, a member of the Executive Committee since 2010, is re-appointed as Managing Partner for the third time. He is particularly recognised for his skill in financial regulation, and creating and structuring investment funds. He is a member of the Consultative Commission on "Management and Institutional Investors" of the French Financial Markets Authority, the Legal High Committee for the Financial Markets of Paris, the Legal Committee of the French Association for Growth Investors (AFIC), and the Tax, Legal and Regulatory Committee of the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA).

Renaud Baguenault de Puchesse, 53, headed the firm's Prague office from 1995 to 1999 before becoming a partner of Gide's Real Estate Transactions and Financing practice group in Paris. He has widely acknowledged experience in advising on the acquisition and sale of property assets (offices, retail). He is the regular counsel to several French and international investors on the implementation of complex real estate transactions. Renaud is regularly ranked in the various international legal directories, and was named "Lawyer of the Year 2012" in Real Estate Law by US legal journal Best Lawyers in France.

Nadège Nguyen, 49, a re-elected member of the Committee, specialises in domestic and cross-border acquisitions and corporate matters, in particular in the industrial, hotel and food industries, as well as private equity transactions (LBO and turn-around). In 2013, Nadège was elected Chair of Lex Mundi by the organisation’s Board of Directors for a one-year mandate; Lex Mundi is the world's largest network of leading independent law firms (21,000 lawyers in over 100 countries), with Gide as the exclusive member for France.

Emmanuel Vital-Durand, 54, specialises in public and administrative law and in urban planning. He acts in regulatory and operational urban planning, local authority management and acts, administrative disputes and corporate issues. He advises real estate operators and public institutions on implementing complex projects requiring the intervention of national and local administrations. In these fields, he plays a significant role in dispute resolution throughout France. Emmanuel is the regular counsel to a number of property actors when developing significant operations. He was a lecturer at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration and at Sciences-Po in Paris, and regularly publishes articles in his fields of expertise. An expert in the ministerial working group on "project urban planning" (2011), Emmanuel is an active member of GRIDAUH (French Research Group for the Institutions and the Law of Development, Urban Planning and Housing).

Frédérique Misk-Malher, 52, secretary-general since February 2015, is in charge of all the firm’s support functions and the Accounts and Financial Reporting division. She supports the Executive Committee in defining and implementing its development policy, and heads strategic projects in France and abroad, as well as cross-departmental projects. She began her career at Arthur Andersen before becoming the administrative and financial director within the advertising division for France of communication agency DDB for 13 years. She then became Chief Financial Officer for Young & Rubicam for three years, and director-general of Heptacom for two years. Frédérique then joined group DTZ in 2010, and law firm Baker & McKenzie in 2011 as director-general and member of the Executive Committee of the Paris, Luxembourg and Casablanca offices.