Credit Suisse has appointed Philippe Guez as head of wealth management investment banking advisory (IBA) coverage for France in a bid to focus more on entrepreneurial clients.

Guez has more than two decades of industry experience, most recently at Atlas Financial Solutions (ATFIS), where he was a partner in independent M&A advisory for small and midcap advisory.

Prior to that, he held positions at Baycap, which Guez founded, and Merrill Lynch in Paris where he was responsible for executions and transactions as the head of M&A for France.

Guez will partner with the teams of Gilles Dard, head of WM France market area business, and of Bruno Hallak, head of investment banking and capital markets in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

He will report to the co-heads of WM IBA Europe Coverage, Vincenzo De Falco and Stefan Gratzer.

At a local level, he will report to Valérie Landon, chief executive France and Belgium.

Dard and Hallak highlighted the greater engagement with entrepreneurs while "the creation of this new function and the arrival of Philippe Guez to Credit Suisse France allows further strengthening of collaboration between its divisions and the expansion of the range of high-end and customized services provided by the bank".