Remembrances
Please send remembrances to news@chasealum.org.
From Jeff Wheeler: I had the pleasure of working (and playing) with dear Olivier and his wonderful wife, Pia, in Rio. I lost my dear wife Leslie five years ago. I hope that she and Olivier are able to samba together at Carnaval. Love to Pia and the family.
From Abigail Rider: Olivier and I were credit analysts together in the Divisão de Financiamentos Externos ("DFE") at Banco Lar in Rio. We waded through mountains of annual credit reviews of all the big Brazilian companies, Siderbras, Petrobras, Eletrobras, Telebras....and then worked together again in the Brazil-Argentina Liaison Office in New York. Olivier was very good at everything he did but never at the expense of his wonderful and sophisticated sense of humor: it was lots of fun to work with him. He was a true world citizen. We were a very tight group in the DFE and his passing leaves a big void in a period of my life that I remember with great fondness.
From Mariana Abrantes de Sousa: I remember Olivier well from our time together at the New York Liaison Office for Brazil and Argentina. I especially remember his energy and good humor when facing the annual challenge of preparing "le budget" in the context of our unpredictable countries.
My condolences to his family.
From Jean-Marc Bara: Olivier and I worked together at the Brazil-Argentina Liaison office in New York in the early 1980s. I remember Olivier’s critical thinking and witty sense of humor. Olivier was a true globalist able to bridge the cultures of Europe, the United States and Latin America. After having lost touch, we reconnected via emails earlier this decade and that brought back the good memories of our time at the Liaison Office. My condolences to his wife, Pia, and the family.
From Wolfgang Fenkart-Fröschl: I have little to add to the comments given by Jeff, Abigail, Mariana and Jean Marc – Olivier always put a very personal and positive stamp on the organization he worked for. Banco Lar Brasileiro–and the newly established DFE responsible for the Brazil cross-border business–was at the time one of the most exciting areas to work for within the Chase world. In this fast growing and very hectic environment, Olivier always kept his countenance and humor, which was not always easy to accomplish. I read the sad news last week in Brazil sitting in a restaurant-bar opposite the Manaus Opera and drank a caipirinha to his memory.
In Memoriam: Olivier Descamps, 68
A memorial service will be held in the EBRD Auditorium on Monday 5 February at 17:30 in memory of Olivier Descamps. Bank Staff and Alumni are invited to join Olivier’s family and close friends at this special ceremony, which will be followed by a reception in the coffee area. The condolence book will be on display on that day for those of you wishing to write a personal message. The book will then be given to the family. Please RSVP to Lada Edwards.
Olivier Descamps, who served in several managerial positions at Chase Manhattan from 1975 to 1993, died on November 26, 2017.
A Belgian-born baron, Descamps was a graduate of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
He began his banking career at Chase, where he served in Corporate Banking in Rio de Janeiro, North America Corporate Finance and South America Corporate Banking based in New York, and the Leveraged Acquisition European Group and Benelux Corporate Finance in London.
In 1993, he joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), from which he retired in 2015. Descamps was Managing Director, Countries of Operations in the EBRD Banking Department. In this role he oversaw the strategy and management of the operations of the Bank across all of the EBRD regions, managing five regional Country Managing Directors and providing enhanced operational consistency across the regions.
He was also responsible for the Small Business Initiative, one of the EBRD core strategic initiatives focused on SME origination, implementation and branding, and a member of EBRD's Strategy and Policy Committee.
Memorial contributions should be made to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in his name and will go to support lung cancer research.