Turning points: Philippe Laraison, MD commodities trading, Société Générale

Philippe Laraison, managing director of commodities trading at Société Générale talks to Katie Holliday about his biggest career challenges and the growth of the bank’s commodities division

Philippe Laraison’s lengthy and varied tenure at Société Générale has been integral to the growth of the commercial bank’s commodities presence worldwide. Fresh from university with a degree in engineering in 1994, he began his career at the bank seven years after Société Générale first ventured into the commodities space in 1987, as an options market maker on the London-based International Petroleum Exchange’s (IPE) open outcry trading floor. Laraison stayed with Société Générale for the