Since May 2025, François Chimits has been Head of Europe Program at the Institut Montaigne. He specializes in economic security issues, EU trade policy and the EU-US-China triangle.

After a master's degree in development economics from Paris Dauphine, François began his career at the Direction Générale du Trésor (Ministry of Economy and Finance), first in Singapore, then for two years in Beijing, and finally in Paris, working on French and EU trade policy issues. He then returned to Chinese issues, spending four years with the MERICS economic team, first in Berlin and then helping to open the German center's Brussels office.

In the meantime, he was a research associate at CEPII, first on globalization and sustainable development issues, then on interactions between the international economy and China. He was also in charge of a course on the Chinese economy at Sciences Po Paris from 2019 to 2024.

Yasmina Serghini is a Managing Director in Moody’s Rating's Corporate Finance Group. She manages the teams in Madrid, Milan and Paris that are responsible for investment grade and high yield companies primarily in the TMT, retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, packaged goods, railways and postal services industries.

Since joining Moody’s in 2005, Yasmina has been in charge of the credit ratings of automotive and truck manufacturers, retail, consumer packaged goods companies, including beverages and business services companies. Prior to joining Moody’s, Yasmina worked for Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne as a credit risk analyst where she had responsibilities for the analysis of companies mainly in the airlines, telecoms and real estate industries as well as aircraft and shipping financings. Yasmina is a CFA charterholder. 

She holds a Postgraduate Diploma (“DESS”) in Finance from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and has a university degree (majoring in Finance) from Dauphine University (Paris). She is fluent in English, French and Moroccan.

Nick Hill is a Managing Director and heads the Credit Strategy & Guidance function within the Credit Strategy & Standards division in Moody’s Ratings. 

Based in Paris, he joined Moody’s in March 2010, initially heading the France / BeNeLux banking team. 

Since then he has managed successively larger teams, led the global revision of Moody’s bank rating methodology, which was published in 2015, and latterly was co-head of the global banking team. 

Prior to joining Moody’s, Nick worked as a bank analyst in a variety of roles. These include banking supervision at the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority, where he began his career; sell-side equity research on French banks in a #1 ranked team at Morgan Stanley; rating UK and continental European banks at Standard & Poor’s; and providing balance sheet advice to financial institutions with RBS. 

A graduate of Christ’s College, University of Cambridge in the UK, Nick holds an MA in English, a diploma in French, and a postgraduate certificate in Finance from Birkbeck College, University of London.   

Olivier Panis is an Executive Director in the EMEA Financial Institutions Group based in Paris, covering a portfolio of European Global Investment Banks (GIBs) and other banks in France and Benelux. 

Olivier joined Moody’s in Dubai in 2013 where he assumed responsibility for a portfolio of financial institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and North Africa. Prior to joining Moody’s in 2013, he was heading the Portfolio Management team for Corporate Banking Emerging Markets at Barclays. He started his career as a financial analyst at the French Ministry of Finance in Paris. Olivier Panis holds a MSc in Economics from the Université PARIS I (Sorbonne).

Sarah has been the lead analyst for most countries in the European Union, and is also a former lead analyst for the United States. She is currently the lead analyst for France and Italy, among other European countries. She is also one of the Sovereign Risk Group’s global spokespeople. 

She joined Moody’s in 2009 after completing a Sloan Fellowship at the London Business School. Prior to this academic sabbatical, she spent seven years at the Financial Services Authority in London where she headed the regulator’s Risk Analysis area and acted as its chief macroeconomist. Before joining the FSA, she worked in Dun & Bradstreet’s Economic Analysis Group for six years, where she was the organisation’s Deputy Chief Economist. 

She holds an MA in European Studies (with a concentration in Economics and Finance) from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, DC and an AB with a double major in Government and History from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in the United States. She is a CFA Charterholder and is co-chair of the Macroeconomic Committee of the CFA Society France. She is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States and is based in Paris.