Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Sophie Bellon, is also appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo
18 februari 2022
At its meeting of February 15, 2022, the Board of Directors has decided to appoint its Chairwoman, Sophie Bellon, as Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo, a position she has held on an interim basis since October 1, 2021.
The Board expresses its full support in Sophie Bellon, who has successfully led the transition phase of the last few months. The Board considers she is the best placed to lead the Group through this new phase in its history. Her in-depth knowledge of the activities of the Group, which she joined in 1994, was considered by the Board as a major asset.
The Board of Directors noted the very strong momentum around the priorities set by Sophie Bellon to strengthen Sodexo's competitiveness and accelerate its transformation.
Moreover, in recent months, the work and decisions concerning Sodexo's strategic direction have intensified. In particular, the Board of Directors has launched a project to develop and render more autonomous the Benefits & Rewards Services activity, which would lead to providing it with a dedicated governance, while remaining controlled by Sodexo.
These factors reinforce the Board's conviction of the necessity for perfect alignment between the definition and execution of the strategy, at a time when the acceleration of Sodexo's transformation requires, in particular, speed and agility in the company's decision-making processes. In this context, despite the quality of the candidates evaluated as part of this search process, the Board of Directors felt that recruiting an outside personality would definitively slow down the momentum.
Consequently, the Board of Directors unanimously decided to maintain the current governance structure and to end, as of March 1, 2022, the interim period. Sophie Bellon, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, will thus continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Sodexo.
The Board of Directors, which includes a majority of independent directors, has also decided to appoint Luc Messier, a Sodexo director since January 2020, as an independent Lead Director. His main mission will be to ensure the proper governance of the company.