Marie-Christine Lombard, who dramatically resigned as CEO of TNT Express last month amid theongoing UPS takeover bid, is returning to France to take over as head of Geodis, the country’s
leading express and freight transport group, it was announced today.The French-born executive, who had run the TNT Express business since 2004, will become the newCEO of Geodis, effective today (October 24). She quit the Dutch company on September 24.
Pierre Blayau, who had held the positions of Geodis CEO and chairman since 2001, will becomecompany chairman, while Jean-Louis Demeulenaere, the current Geodis managing director, is leavingthe group. SNCF Geodis said the managerial restructuring is part of a governance change at Geodisdecided by the Board of Directors and Blayau had reorganised responsibilities at the Transport andLogistics Division in agreement with SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy.
Blayau said he is “delighted” that a recognised sector professional is joining Geodis to givecompany employees a new sense of momentum in a difficult economic environment.
Pepy added: “Given the crisis in volumes in the goods transport sector, I fully support thechanges made by Pierre Blayau. The arrival of Marie-Christine Lombard at the SNCF group as ChiefExecutive Officer of Geodis will strengthen the teams and ready Geodis for a new phase ofprofitable growth. She will place all her skills at the service of the Transport and LogisticsDivision.”
Lombard quit TNT Express last month “to pursue an external career opportunity”, promptingcriticism by supervisory board chairman Antony Burgmans of her decision to leave mid-way throughthe agreed takeover by UPS. The Financial Times reported at the time that TNT would hold her to the‘non-compete’ clause of her contract, preventing her from working for a competitor.
The 54-year-old initially worked in the French financial sector during the 1980s and then movedinto the transport and logistics sector in 1993 when she joined the TPG group (which became TNT in2005). She headed TNT Express France until 2003 before taking over as CEO for TNT’s worldwideexpress business in 2004.
SNCF Geodis, a subsidiary of state-owned French rail operator SNCF, has revenues of some €9.4billion and describes itself as the fourth-largest transport and logistics operator in Europe, withnearly 48,000 staff and a network covering 120 countries. The company combines Fret SNCF, the railfreight business, and Geodis, which has a diverse portfolio of road, air and sea freight forwardingactivities, a growing contract logistics operation and a large express business in France.
The French express business is based around Geodis Calberson, the country’s largest domesticexpress parcels operator, and France Express, a premium express delivery company, which compete inthe domestic market with TNT Express, Chronopost and other operators.
Since being acquired by SNCF, Geodis has made several acquisitions, including Ciblex, a smallparcels express company, but its move to buy rival TATEX was blocked by French competitionauthorities. TATEX was acquired by FedEx earlier this year.
