MM Conseil
The firm

MM Conseil.

Independent counsel to executives and boards of directors.

Michel Mathieu Michel Mathieu · Former CEO of LCL, founder of MM Conseil
About us

The experience of real decisions, put at your service.

For twenty-five years, Michel Mathieu made the decisions — at the head of LCL and then at the top of the Crédit Agricole group, in France and internationally.

MM Conseil brings that experience — real decisions, not theory — to executives and boards of directors. No imported method, no interchangeable deck: every engagement starts from a precise stake. A transformation to lead, a financial trade-off to make, a governance to strengthen, a succession to prepare.

The advice here is direct, evidenced, and commits the person who gives it. Discretion is not optional: what is said stays between us, what is decided belongs to you.

Services

Four ways to work together

Every engagement is grounded in a precise point of the career — a responsibility held, a figure turned around, counsel genuinely practised. Never in a method learned from a book.

Boards of directors, shareholders, committees

Board mandates & governance

A director who has sat where the real questions are settled — audit, risk, nominations, remuneration — and who can tell a debate of form from a decision that binds.

  • Director / non-voting director mandates
  • Chairing or serving on specialised committees
  • Board governance and effectiveness reviews
Proven in the career

Director of Amundi, Eurazeo, Predica, Crédit Agricole Italia — and today of Wakam, CIEL Finance and BNI. Twenty years on the boards of leading institutions.

Executives, management committees

Executive advisory

The sparring partner of a leader who has held the same seat. On strategy, transformation and the hard trade-off — someone who has already carried the responsibility, not only produced the analysis.

  • Board advisory & sparring partner to the CEO
  • Strategic framing and defining trade-offs
  • Support for transformations and restructurings
Proven in the career

Seven years CEO of LCL, Deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole S.A. — he has held the seat, not merely advised those who hold it.

General and financial management

Financial diagnosis & steering

Reading performance where it truly hides and steering by the right indicators — net banking income, cost-to-income ratio, profitability. Figures he has turned around himself, not merely commented on.

  • Performance and trajectory diagnosis
  • Steering framework and key indicators
  • Cost-structure optimisation
Proven in the career

The “MUST” plan: €950M in savings delivered. Cost-to-income ratio cut from 72% to 46%, net banking income sharply improved.

Executives and high-potentials

Executive coaching

Individual, strictly confidential support — for an executive taking up a new role, a successor being prepared, or simply someone who needs a perspective that owes them nothing.

  • Individual, confidential support
  • Preparation for a new role / succession
  • Perspective and strategic listening
Proven in the career

Forty years teaching and passing on — professor at CESB, trainer at IFCAM, lecturer at Montpellier Law School.

How an engagement begins

A conversation, never a method.

Every engagement begins with a specific issue, never a method. A first conversation, in confidence, to find the real question. Then advice that is direct, evidenced, and owned by the person who gives it — one that stays until the recommendation becomes a result.

A deliberately small number of engagements, chosen for what is at stake.

Independence, first

Advice is only worth the independence of the person who gives it. MM Conseil sells no product, places no one, and answers to no one but its client. The view is objective because it is free — including when it is not the one you hoped to hear.

The firm
SAS
Legal form
2023
Founded
Marseille
Based in
FR/EN
Working languages

MM CONSEIL — SAS (société par actions simplifiée). 412 rue Paradis, 13008 Marseille. RCS Marseille 978 430 080. SIRET 978 430 080 00017.

Frequently asked

In brief

Who is Michel Mathieu?

Michel Mathieu is the former Chief Executive of LCL (2016-2023) and former Deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole S.A. (2010-2015). A Doctor of Business Law, he spent over forty years at the heart of banking before founding MM Conseil.

What does MM Conseil offer?

Four engagements: board mandates and governance, executive advisory (sparring-partner to the CEO), financial diagnosis and steering, and executive coaching. Each is grounded in real experience of leadership, never in a method learned from a book.

How does an engagement unfold?

It begins with a first confidential conversation to define the real question. Then comes direct, documented counsel that commits the person who gives it — and support until the recommendation becomes a result.

Is MM Conseil independent?

Yes. MM Conseil sells no product, places no one and answers only to its client. The advice is objective because it is free — including when it is not what one hoped to hear.

Where is MM Conseil, and whom does the firm advise?

MM Conseil is based in Marseille and advises executives, boards of directors and funds, in France and internationally.

Continue

Explore further

Track record Forty years at the heart of banking The career, company by company, with the figures. View → Mandates Boards & advisory Wakam, Altaroc, CIEL Finance… current and past mandates. View → Books Four books From the transformation of banking to a treatise on willpower. View → Media Interviews & appearances BFM Business, Le Figaro, RTL — an executive’s voice, on screen. View →
Confidential conversation

Let’s discuss your situation

A first confidential conversation, with no commitment, to define your need.

Request a confidential conversation michel@mmconseil.eu