Wendel Investment Managers hires Bénédicte Rabier from AXA IM Prime as product chief

Wendel Investment Managers has named Bénédicte Rabier chief product officer effective October 1, 2026, an appointment announced on October 5. Rabier, 49, arrives from AXA Investment Managers - Prime, where she was a managing director and chief product officer, and will work closely with Cyril Marie, who, the release says, has recently been appointed to Wendel's executive board, chaired by Laurent Mignon. A chief product officer at a platform still under construction is a distribution hire as much as a design one, and Rabier's years selecting alternatives for institutions are the credential that will shape which strategies get built and which do not.

The remit covers product and marketing: Rabier will define and implement the product roadmap and marketing strategy, lead product design and marketing initiatives, help identify new growth opportunities, and support expansion of the offering, a task the release frames as combining investment expertise, market insight, and client expectations. She will also contribute to the platform's long-term strategic plan and its stated ambition of delivering differentiated solutions to investors. The release calls the hire another important milestone in that build-out; it does not enumerate the earlier ones.

Rabier began in 2001 as a fund derivatives analyst at Société Générale Asset Management, then traded and structured fund derivatives at Natixis CIB, Lehman Brothers, and Barclays Capital in New York through 2012. In 2013 she moved to the allocator's side of the table, selecting alternative investments for institutional investors at Allenbridge/MJ Hudson, before two years at Amundi Alternative Investments as a senior product specialist covering private assets and hedge funds. From 2016 to 2022 she was international head of the investments specialists group at Natixis Investment Managers, across all asset classes in Europe, MENA and APAC, with a specific focus on private markets. She graduated from Paris-Dauphine University.

Wendel's own calendar sets the next checkpoint: a third-quarter 2026 trading update, financial communication as of September 30, 2026, then full-year results publishing net asset value as of December 31, 2026.