As part of its growth strategy in France, Barclays has promoted Guillaume Touze to the new role of director of private clients and development of Barclays Bank France. He was previously president and chief executive of Barclays Asset Managers. Mr Touze, a member of the executive committee of Barclays France, will be responsible for Barclays Banque Privée and the Barclays Finance branch network, as well as the commercial activities of Barclays Asset Management. The bank said Mr Touze's new role concludes a process of uniting all the commercial activities related to private clients and the asset management businesses in one unit. The latter includes the provision of services to institutional clients and companies, as well as the distribution of products to third parties. Mr Touze began his career with Barclays as assistant to the chief executive of Barclays Wealth Management Europe, based in London. He later took over development of asset management products for Europe, before joining Barclays Asset Management France in 1999, heading up institutional, marketing and product activities. Mr Touze was appointed director of Investment Management France in December 2002, covering wealth management, advisory and discretionary portfolio management activities, as well as Barclays Stockbrokers France. As of August 2004, he was also placed in charge of Barclays Asset Management France, which includes mutual funds management and company saving schemes. In September 2005, investment and asset management activities were gathered under the single trading name – Barclays Asset Managers. In his place, Barclays Asset Management France has promoted Oliver Stul as its new managing director. He was formerly deputy managing director and chief operating officer at the company. in his new role, Mr Stul will head the mutual fund and private client businesses of Barclays Asset Management in France. He also becomes a member of the executive board of Barclays Bank France. Present in France since 1917, Barclays now has a network of 60 offices and 200 financial advisors in Barclays Finance. Barclays manages more than €17 billion ($23 billion) in assets for 150,000 customers.