Meet Corinne Grain, MD, Senior Relationship Manager, Paris

It took a very special opportunity to bring me out of retirement.

Corinne was called out of retirement to rejoin Barclays Europe in an important and influential role. She’s discovered a business that’s successful, dynamic and increasingly significant in the global financial arena.

Corinne left Barclays in 2019, after a 20-year career with Barclays Europe, employed in the Paris office. She’d occupied a wide range of high profile roles, and was both European Head of Cross Asset Solutions and Head of Flow Rates for Core Europe when she decided to leave. Although she was happy in her role, with a clear career path, Corinne wanted more time to focus on her family. So she retired from her role and moved to Provence.

For the next two years, and during the time of Covid, she was content to be at home with her family, spending quality time with her children and enjoying her garden. After a while, she started looking for another job, considering a range of jobs in Provence, with the flexibility she needed to balance her work and life. That’s when a trusted colleague from Barclays reached out to her.

I told him that I could not travel from Aix-en-Provence to Paris every day for work, but thanks for the offer. However, in a very smart move, he told me that Barclays now offered a much more dynamic way of working and to think about how it could work for me. 

Her colleague explained to her that Barclays had adopted a new approach to working patterns, including more opportunity to work flexibly. Corinne debated the idea with her family, put forward a proposal which Barclays agreed to, and to her own surprise she gladly accepted the role of Senior Relationship Manager. In this role, she would focus on providing the very best service to some of the most important Markets clients on the continent. It was also about establishing robust internal and external connectivity that would shape and support the strongest relationships. 

It was a great opportunity for Corinne. She had not been out of the bank for very long, so she still had most of her contacts and colleagues and was very familiar with the business: it was relatively easy for her to re-establish the important relationships she’d need in her role. She was excited about the idea of being more involved with clients again, and it was a very senior role that would help her to re-accelerate her career again after her break. In particular, she was interested in the way Barclays Europe was changing and expanding rapidly, which offered huge potential.

Barclays Europe has changed. We’re so much bigger now, our strategic importance is much stronger, and there’s much more focus on Continental Europe.

Corinne was highly impressed with the organisation she discovered on her return. She observed a motivated, expanding team of talented people, all working together towards the same goal. She says there’s a clear vision and a confidence that Barclays Europe will be a top 5 provider to our biggest European clients.

Barclays Paris office has clearly benefited from the strategic focus from Barclays. We are investing in new, bigger offices in Paris as we already need more space and we plan for potential future moves.

Regarding her own future with the bank, Corinne says she is enjoying continuing to build internal relationships as well as relationships with her expanding client base.

Corinne has very clear views on the appeal of Barclays as a place to build a career. She points out that joining Barclays Europe means joining the global Barclays organisation, with all the opportunity that provides. And as Barclays Europe grows in size and significance, the possibilities for exciting and rewarding careers will grow exponentially:

Paris has become an important hub for Barclays, with a tangible sense of dynamism and with ambitious plans. Barclays is one of (if not the) leading European CIB. This is a great time to be part of it.