The Board of directors
Composition of the Board
The Board of directors consists of 14 members, a director representing employee shareholders and two directors representing employees. 8 directors are considered as independent and 7 are women.
Powers of the Board
The Board of directors defines Arkema’s strategy and overseas its implementation.
The Board reports to its shareholders.
Know more about duties and organization at work of the Board of directors.
The Board of directors includes the following members:
- Thierry Le Hénaff
- Philippe Allart
- BPIfrance Investissement, represented by Sébastien Moynot
- Séverin Cabannes
- Marie-Ange Debon
- Fonds Stratégique de Participations, represented by Isabelle Boccon-Gibod
-
Ilse Henne
- Ian Hudson
- Florence Lambert
- Hélène Moreau-Leroy
- Nicolas Patalano
- Thierry Pilenko
- Susan Rimmer
- Philippe Sauquet
The Board was established in the present manner so as to enable Arkema to benefit from the skills as well as the varied and complementary experience of its members."
The biographies of the Board of directors
Thierry Le Hénaff
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Born in 1963, Thierry Le Hénaff is a graduate of France’s École Polytechnique and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Management from Stanford University in the United States. He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, as well as a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (French order of merit awards). He is lead independent member of the Supervisory Board and a member of the Compensation and Appointments committee of Michelin. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the École Polytechnique Foundation since 2016, and of France Industrie since 2021.
After starting his career with Peat Marwick Consultants, in 1992 he joined Bostik, Total’s Adhesives division, where he held a number of operational positions in France and worldwide. In July 2001, he was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bostik Findley, the new entity resulting from the merger of Total’s and Elf Atochem’s Adhesives divisions. In January 2003, he joined Atofina’s Executive Committee and then Total’s management committee in 2004. He has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arkema since the Company’s stock market listing in 2006.
Date of first appointment: 2006
Date appointment expires: 2028
Philippe Allart
Director representing employees
Born in 1974, Philippe Allart holds a DUT degree in chemistry from the University of Poitiers and a DEPSUP specialized in catalysis completed in a CNRS laboratory in Poitiers. He is currently an R&D Technician at the “Centre de Recherches Rhône Alpes – Pierre Bénite”, in Lyon. In addition, Philippe Allart is the Chairman of the supervisory board of the FCPE Arkema Actionnariat France.
Philippe Allart began his carrier in 1997 as a chemicals technician at the “Institut Français du Pétrole” and then at Renault. As from 1999, he has held several positions as an R&D technician for Atofina and then for Arkema. His strong involvement in the CFDT trade union has enabled him to hold several positions within the Group’s employee representative bodies such as staff representative and union representative at CHSCT. He has been a member of the accounts control commission of the Syndicat Chimie Energie Rhône Alpes Ouest.
Date of first appointment : 2024
Date appointment expires: 2028
Bpifrance Investissement
Non-Executive Director, represented by Sébastien Moynot
Bpifrance assists businesses - at every stage of their development - providing loans, guarantees and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation and international expansion projects. Bpifrance now also provides export insurance services with a wide range of products. In addition, consulting, academic, networking and acceleration programs for start-ups, SMEs and mid-caps are also part of its services to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from a local, single and efficient point of contact to help them meet their challenges effectively.
Lac1 acquires long-term stakes in French listed multinationals and plays an active role in their governance. The Lac1 fund has an investment capacity of €4.2 billion after its first round of funding alongside Bpifrance, involving around thirty subscribers, amongst which French and international institutional investors, large corporations and family offices. Lac1 is managed by Bpifrance Investissement, and draws on Bpifrance’s position within its ecosystem, its knowledge of technological and environmental transitions, as well as its expertise in the governance of listed companies. Bpifrance Investissement is Bpifrance’s equity financing arm.
Sébastien Moynot, born in 1972, is a former student of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, holds a Master of Advanced Studies in probability from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, and is a graduate of Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique with an agrégation in mathematics. He started his career in the economic forecasting department of the French Ministry of Finance. From 2000 to 2004, he was responsible for the strategy and then the debt issuance operations of Agence France Trésor, managing the French government’s debt. He was then in charge of companies in the transportation sector on behalf of the French State Holdings Agency and, in this role, oversaw the IPO of several investees. He joined the Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement at its creation in 2009, and then Bpifrance where, since 2013, he has been a member of the management team of the Development Capital business, for which he has made a large number of equity investments in companies across all sectors.
Over the past 15 years, Sébastien Moynot has sat on the Boards of Directors for some 20 companies, notably in various industrial sectors and in the field of renewable energy. He is currently a member of the boards of directors of the Bénéteau Group, Albioma and Verallia.
Date of first appointment: 2021
Date appointment expires: 2025
Séverin Cabannes
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1958, Mr. Séverin Cabannes is a graduate of France’s École Polytechnique and École Nationale des Mines de Paris. He is a senior independent director of Aéroports de Paris, a director of Moody's France SAS, Moody’s GmbH and Moody's Investors Service UK.
Mr. Séverin Cabannes started his career in 1983 at Crédit National as a financial analyst. From 1986 to 1997, he held various positions at Elf Atochem, including Manager of Polyethylene Manufacturing and Head of Economics and Strategic Planning. In 1997, Mr. Séverin Cabannes joined La Poste as international development and strategy Executive Vice-President, member of the Executive Committee, before becoming Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Strategy and Finance in 1998. In 2001, he joined Société Générale as Chief Financial Officer and member of the Management Committee, and between 2002 and 2006, he was Chief Executive Officer of Steria group. He rejoined Société Générale in 2007 as Head of Resources, and then as Deputy Chief Executive Officer from 2008 to the end of 2020. From January to September 2021, he was advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of Société Générale.
Date of first appointment: 2023
Date appointment expires: 2027
Marie-Ange Debon
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1965, Marie-Ange Debon is a graduate of the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris (HEC) and the École nationale de l’administration (ENA), and holds a master’s degree in law. She is Chairman of the Management Board of Keolis.
Prior to joining Suez Environnement in 2008, Marie-Ange Debon has served in various positions in both the public and private sectors: auditor and special advisor to the French Audit Commission (Cour des comptes) from 1990 to 1994 and deputy executive Vice President of France 3 from 1994 to 1998.
Mrs. Marie-Ange Debon joined the Thomson group in 1998 as deputy Chief Financial Officer and became Company Secretary in July 2003. In 2008, she joined Suez Environnement as General Secretary in charge of legal, and information systems audit, risk, insurance and purchasing and a member of the Suez Group Management Committee. In 2013, she took charge of the International Division and then between March 2018 and December 2019 she was Deputy Managing Director in charge of France, Italy and Central and Eastern Europe.
She has been a member of the Collège de l’Autorité des marchés financiers (French financial markets authority) from 2008 to 2014 and Chairwoman of the corporate law commission of the MEDEF between 2009 and 2013. Mrs. Marie-Ange Debon is an independent member of the Board of Directors of TechnipFMC and Chairwoman of its audit committee.
Date of first appointment: 2018
Date appointment expires: 2026
The Fonds Stratégique de Participations
Isabelle Boccon-Gibod
Non-Executive Director, Permanent Representative
The Fonds Stratégique de Participations (FSP) announced in July 2013 that it has taken a 6% shareholding in Arkema’s share capital. The FSP was created in 2012 by four major French insurance companies - BNP Paribas Cardif, CNP Assurances, Predica and Sogécap - to invest on the long-term in the share capital of French non-financial listed companies and to support them in the implementation of their strategy. It is represented in the governance boards of these companies.
The FSP appointed as permanent representative Mrs Isabelle Boccon-Gibod, a person who is completely independent from the insurance companies that founded the FSP and from Edmond de Rothschild AM that manages FSP's funds. An engineer with degrees from the École Centrale de Paris and the University of Columbia in the United States, Isabelle Boccon-Gibod was Executive Vice-President of Arjowiggins and Executive Vice-President of the Sequana group. She chaired the Copacel (Union Française des Industries des Cartons, Papiers et Celluloses) until the end of 2013. Isabelle Boccon-Gibod is a member of the National Orientation Board (Conseil National d’Orientation) of BPI France and Vice-President of the Economic Commission of the MEDEF.
Date of first appointment: 2014
Date appointment expires: 2026
Ilse Henne
Non-Executive Independent Director
Ilse Henne, born in 1972 in Ghent, Belgium, holds several advanced business management degrees from the Universities of Ghent and Leuven, Belgium, as well as a master’s degree in linguistics and literature, also from the University of Ghent. She is currently a member of the Executive committee of the thyssenkrupp Materials Services segment as its Chief Transformation Officer. She is responsible for the Group’s operating result and strategic transformation since 2019. She speaks five languages fluently, including French, and has been living in Germany since 2012.
Ilse Henne began her career in 1995 at Sadel NV, a Belgian group specializing in stainless steel products, where she worked in various positions in business development, sales and supply chain management until 2002. She then joined the Materials division of thyssenkrupp Group, which is specialized in the distribution of steel and non-ferrous metals in Belgium. Between 2012 and 2018, she held various management positions in Germany. First as head of the Materials Western Europe/Asia-Pacific operating unit, and between 2016 and 2018 as the CEO of thyssenkrupp Schulte.
Date of first appointment: 2021
Date appointment expires: 2025
Ian Hudson
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1957, Ian Hudson is a graduate of Oxford University with a Master’s degree in French and German. He started his career with ICI, a former UK-based multinational specialized in chemicals and related industries. In 1998, he joined DuPont de Nemours, where he held a number of management roles over 17 years.
He retired in 2016 after serving as President of DuPont Europe, Middle East & Africa for 10 years. He was a member of the Executive Committee and Board of the European Chemical Industry Association (CEFIC) and EuropaBio, as well as a member of the Foundation Board of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and a member of the Board of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce. Ian Hudson was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Carbios from 2019 to 2022.
Date of first appointment: 2019
Date appointment expires: 2027
Florence Lambert
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1972, Mrs. Florence Lambert is a graduate of the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble and holds a PhD in electrochemistry on renewable energy storage. She is an Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (French order of merit award). Since 2021, she has been Chief Executive Officer of Genvia, a company that aims to develop and deploy industrial technology for the production of decarbonized hydrogen.
Mrs. Florence Lambert began her career in 2000 at the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA) where she held various positions. She was first in charge of a laboratory, particularly in the field of renewable energy storage, and then participated in the creation of the French National Institute for Solar Energy (INES) of the CEA, before joining it in 2006. In 2009, she became Head of the Electricity and Hydrogen for Transportation Department where she developed the integration of two key components: lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells. From 2012 to 2020, she was head of the CEA-LITEN (Innovation Laboratory for New Energy Technologies and Nanomaterials), bringing together more than a thousand researchers working on the energy transition, and filing more than 200 patents per year.
Mrs. Florence Lambert also has been Chairman of the Employment, Innovation and Training Commission of the Renewable Energy Union (since 2019), a member of the Academy of Technologies (since 2021) and Ambassador France 2030 - Decarbonization of the Industry (since 2022).
Date of first appointment: 2023
Date appointment expires: 2027
Hélène Moreau-Leroy
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1964, Hélène Moreau-Leroy is a graduate engineer from INSA Lyon, and holds a Master’s in International Business Administration (University of New England, Australia). She is a certified supply chain professional (APICS). Since April 2021, Hélène Moreau-Leroy has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hutchinson.
She has held a number of management positions in R&D, project management, procurement, production and supply chain in industrial groups, and spent 14 years of her career outside France in international posts.
She joined the Safran Group in 2003 in the Group Purchasing Department of Snecma SA. She then oversaw the implementation of Messier-Bugatti Dowty’s supply chain in emerging countries before she became Executive Vice-President of Programs and a member of the Management Committee. She was President of Safran Transmission Systèmes between 2013 and 2017, and then Director of the Zodiac Aerospace integration project when it was acquired by Safran, between December 1, 2017 and October 31, 2020.
Hélène Moreau-Leroy is also a member of the Steering Committee of the GIFAS' Groupement des Equipementiers de l’Aéronautique et Défense and a member of networks and associations promoting diversity in the workplace.
Date of first appointment: 2015
Date appointment expires: 2027
Nicolas Patalano
Director representing Shareholder Employees
Nicolas Patalano, currently Medium Term Project Technician in the High Performance Polymers Business Line, has held various positions within Arkema, including Process Technician, Industrial Hygiene Manager and Site Contract Manager in the HSE department, as well as Medium Term Correspondent in the Orgasol manufacturing line since he joined the company in 1998.
In addition, he has held several positions within employee representative bodies for the CFE-CGC trade union, including Union Delegate, Central Union Representative and Group Coordinator. He is also Chairman of the regional union body Syndicat Regional Chimie Pyrénées Garonne.
Date of first appointment: 2022
Date appointment expires: 2026
Thierry Pilenko
Non-Executive Independent Director
Thierry Pilenko, born in 1957, is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in Nancy, France, and of the Institut Français du Pétrole (IFPEN). He is a management consultant and holds several directorships in international energy companies.
Thierry Pilenko began his career in 1984 as a geological engineer with Schlumberger. During the 20 years he spent with this company, he held various management positions, including in Italy, Gabon, Nigeria, Dubai, Indonesia and the United States. In 2004, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Veritas DGC, a geophysical services company based in Houston (which subsequently became CGG Veritas), before becoming Chairman and CEO of Technip SA in 2007, and Executive Chairman of TechnipFMC between 2017 and 2019. He was a member of the Supervisory Board of Peugeot (PSA) between 2012 and 2014, a director of CGG between 2007 and 2010, of Hercules Offshore between 2006 and 2015, and of Valaris between 2015 and 2017. He has been a US resident, based in Houston, for over 15 years.
Date of first appointment: 2021
Date appointment expire : 2025
Susan Rimmer
Director representing employees
Born in 1975, of British and French nationality, Susan Rimmer holds an honours degree from the University of York, U.K. and “L’École Centrale de Marseille” in France. Since April 2019, she has served as Global Product Stewardship Manager within Arkema Coating Resins.
She started her career at Cray Valley Ltd. in Wales as a Technical Service Chemist then became Demand Manager. Expatriated to Cray Valley SA in 1999, first at the Villers-Saint-Paul site then at the “ Centre de Recherche de l’Oise” R&D Centre, she occupied several positions in technical service, sales and product regulatory.
She joined Arkema in 2011. In 2013 she became EMEA Product Stewardship and Sales Administration Manager for the Fluorochemicals Business Unit.
Date of first appointment: 2020
Date appointment expires: 2024
Philippe Sauquet
Non-Executive Independent Director
Born in 1957, Mr. Philippe Sauquet is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and holds a Master's degree in Industrial Management from the University of Berkley (USA). He has been Chairman of KréVal since 2021.
Philippe Sauquet has held several senior management positions within the TotalEnergies Group for more than 30 years, including member of the Group's Executive Committee between 2014 and 2021, Chief Executive Officer of the Gas, Renewables & Power business line and Chief Executive Officer of the Group's Strategy-Innovation business line between 2016 and 2021, and Chief Executive Officer of the Refining-Chemicals business line between 2014 and 2016.
Date of first appointment: 2021
Date appointment expires: 2026