Michel

Report to Chairman. Took over responsibilities for the general management of business units in France and abroad including full P&L. Set strategies focused on international development and innovation to grow the business in a highly mature and competitive market. Implemented restructuring plan and business recovery plans.

Main achievements 2021 – 2023:
• Restructured over 2 years the RX France hub to adapt to structural business changes resulting from Covid-19 crisis whilst improving overall profit margins : Layoff of the workforce, overhaul change in the organisation, offshoring of non-core activities, and reset all operating processes. Built a corporate culture harmonization project.
• Resumed successfully in 2021 the business, after 18 month cessation of activity, in 3 to 4 months instead of the usual 12, in a very complex environment (new organisation, teams, processes and management system and loss of know-how).
• Led the information system overhaul project for the new merged entity.

Main achievements 2012 – 2021:
• Stabilized key events struggling (in depth review of the concept and the customer value proposition; revisited show layout and customer experience) or found growth levers (break the principles to set a show to make a it world’s N°2 event).
• Improved customer engagement by focusing on innovation (launch of concepts such as PPLA, Taste Paris or digital platform such as https://mom.maison-objet.com/fr), product perceived value (18-month process to completely overhaul RX France customer offer), customer relationship (implementation of KPI such as NPS and a customer support service), and a tailor-made offers service (launch of MyStandMaker department).
• Developed international activities through geographical expansion (set-up business in Morocco, UAE, Saudi Arabia), product launches (geo-cloning) or acquisitions (deals in Spain, Morocco and UAE).

Board experience:
• Experience of various governance bodies : Board member of several RX BUs. Chaired the board of directors or member of the supervisory board of SAFI (50/50 JV running Maison&Objet). Enforced shareholders' agreement in a tought environment and successfully defended RX's interests in arbitration process.

Report to CEO Europe South & Middle East - Managed 150+ people in 8 countries.
Responsible for finance (Strategic plan, budget process, monthly detailed reporting), legal (incl. contractual trade agreements) and compliance, corporate affairs and governance, and all support functions (I.T., sales administration, procurement, operation, and facility management).

• +2 margin points improvement through the creation of a purchasing department to optimise commitments, launch of calls for tenders, a selection of preferred suppliers and the signing of long-term contracts.
• Set up, at the same time as the deployment of the new information system, a matrix organization for the support services both to optimize resource allocation and to standardize processes for a better customer service (+20% productivity gain).
• Reinforced financial culture: Introduced for all countries a commercial dashboard making it possible to control with high degree of accuracy the business trend; Developed trust based relations with operational teams aimed at strengthening links (result: actual revenue between [98%-105%] of budgeted revenue); Implemented ad hoc business performance analysis.
• Managed corporate finance activities: Led around 10 acquisitions in France, Spain and the Middle East. Restructured the legal organization by way of merger, liquidation or sale. Implemented a non-core assets disposal plan in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis.

Report to Group CFO for Europe
• Create the management control department for Europe including the implementation of group reporting, a unified budget process and various management tools.
• Implemented company's first integrated financial information system (commitment management and sales administration) both to improve quality and to speed up the production of financial information