Professional background

Started working in Paris, 1972 and for 7 years as a financial analyst with Banking and insurance institutions

 a- Lafarge (1979 to 2010) 

Joined Lafarge Head office in 1979 and occupied until March 1993 several financial and operational positions at head office and subsidiaries - Lafarge Fondu International (Controller) and Cimento Maua (Brazil)

(Controller and Regional executive Vice President ) 

Senior Vice President Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, From March 1993 to March 1996, 

In charge of developing Lafarge presence in cement in that part of the world, and more specifically in China where a joint venture on an existing cement plant in the Beijing area was negotiated by self  with public Chinese authorities and established in 1994. 

The second major development negotiated and achieved by self in Asia was the takeover of the control of a company in Indonesia (Semen Andalas) and implementation of Lafarge methods of management.

CEO and Board Member of Cimento Maua - Brazil (March 1996 to July 2002) 

a- Strategy/Development: Achieved internal development (Construction of a Greenfield plant in Arcos- Minas Gerais) as well as external development (Cimento Montes Claros acquisition, a 20% stake in Cimentos Tupi and the divestment of the Bahia grinding station at exceptional value).

Managed the vertical integration in Ready Mix and aggregates. Acquisition of major ready mix and agregates operations

Non executive member of the board of Cimento Tupi 

Executive member of Cimento Maua and Cimentos Montes Claros 

b- Operational: Focus on improvement of the profitability through full management of the customers’ portofolio, reduction of transportation costs, as well as plant reliability improvement and industrial costs reduction.

CEO (July 2002 and until July 2006) and Executive Board Member of Heracles Cement (listed at Athens Stock Exchange)(until August 2008) Greece 

Main Achievement:  increase and stabilization at a high level the Plants reliability as well as maximization of plant production as two of the three plants (total capacity 8 million tonne) were dedicated to sold out  export markets. Successful CO2 management and value creation through CO2 credit sales.

Market and Price Management as well as fixed costs reduction (industrial and head office manning)

In charge of Vertical integration in Ready Mix and aggregates. 

CEO and Board Member of Lafarge South Africa South Africa (July 2006 to April 2009)

Internal development:  with the management of the construction of a new Chinese turnkey 1 million tonnes plant. The plant performances (reliability and cost) at start up exceeded all our KPI

Safety:  reinforcement at the plant and on construction site.

Production capacity and Product development: through the increase of the C/K ratio,

Customers’portofolio management, pricing strategy

Costs and working capital reduction

Leading the process of transformation of the company toward compliance with Black Economic Empowerment regulations.

Solving through a dedicated retention and people development program, a very high turnover of qualified employees created by the BEE constraints on the work market. 

b- Cimpor (Lisbon) (listed at Lisbon Stock Exchange) Independant Board Member and Head of Cimpor Cost Cutting project: May 2009 to March 2010  

c- Independant consultant April 2010 to August 2013 

Adviser to european and investment funds willing to invest in building materials in some developed countries (Brics)

d- Titan Cement (Greece) 

Senior EVP- Southern and Eastern Africa Development-  Titan Cement (Greece)  October 2016 to May 2018 

Business Opportunities search in cement in Southern Africa (Afrisam, ARM and Lake Cement reviewed) 

Non Executive Board Member Cimento Apodi (Fortaleza- Brazil) 

e- Dangote Group  

Regional CEO Eastern and South Africa- Dangote Cement (Lagos) September 2013 to September 2016 

Plant construction completion in Ethiopia (3 Mt), Tanzania (3MT), Zambia (1.5 Mt) and South Africa (3 Mt) 

Operation start up preparation and in charge of operations since inception

Executive member of Sephaku cement (South Africa)

Country Manager and CEO Dangote Cement Zambia June 2018 to November 2019 

Full industrial and turn around of the Company- making it market leader and lowest delivered cost producer

Strong development of export sales to Malawi and DRC

Country Manager and CEO Dangote Cement Tanzania  November 2019 to September 2021 

Set up a Turn project in a loss making  with many strategic and operational issues (production, transport and sales)

Independent Consultant since 2021

University Background

Law, Econometrics, Business administration studied at Paris Sorbonne University and Geneva business school 

Other Non executive activities

Member of the french “Societe des Analystes Financiers”

Member of the Board of the Brazilian and South African Cement Association

Chairman of the Greek Cement Association

President of the French/Brazil Chamber of Commerce,

Member of the board of the French/Greek Chamber of Commerce

Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Government (Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur)

Council Advisory Member of the Nisyros Dialogue