ESSEC Appointments: Orange, SNCF, Air Liquide, TF1, EY, INSP and More

Management roles in major French and international groups, scaling up and the school replacing the former ENA...here’s a selection of recent appointments within the ESSEC network.

Stéphane Vallois (E98) has been appointed CEO of Orange Bank. Also a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, he began his career as a strategic consultant with Bain & Company prior to striking out on his own to found a property services company geared towards private investors. He then joined the Crédit Agricole group, in strategic management initially, before moving to the payment services division. Subsequent positions included Deputy Managing Director of Crédit Agricole Payment Services and Deputy CEO of Orange Bank.

Alain Krakovitch (M92) has been appointed President of Eurostar Group at SNCF, in addition to his role as Director of Voyages SNCF (TGV Inoui, Ouigo and Intercités). He is also a graduate of École Centrale de Lyon and Harvard Business School, and has been working for the rail transport group for 20 years, starting with the coordination of the freight restructuring plan, before becoming manager of the Paris Gare du Nord train station, then chief of staff to the President, Director of RER lines D and R, Director of the Paris Sud-Est region, Managing Director for rail safety and service quality, and finally Managing Director of Transilien.

Sébastien de Courtivron (IMHI 02) has been appointed Deputy CEO of Covivio Hotels, the specialist in hotel investment with a portfolio consisting of around 350 hotels, worth a total of €6.6bn. He began his career with Disney / Eurodisney, where he held the positions of Special Project Manager and Director of Operations. He then joined the AccorHotels group, taking on several roles in various countries, in particular Managing Director of Pullman Paris Bercy and Director of Operations for upmarket brands in Brazil. This was followed by a move to the Radisson Hotel Group, as Regional Director for Western Europe, where he oversaw operations in France, Belgium and Spain.

Nicolas Boudet (IMHI 97) has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of International Dairy Queen (IDQ), a fast-food and ice cream group boasting over 80 years of existence, with around 7,000 operations in some twenty countries. He previously held several management positions, including Director of the Taco Bell franchises in the USA, Director of Development at KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in South America, and Executive Vice-President of the Focus Brands group (which notably includes the brands Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, McAlister's, Moe's and Schlotzky's), in addition to International Director of Wingstop Restaurants, Inc. 

Jean-Christophe Sibileau (M94) has been appointed CEO of St Hubert, the leader in vegetable oil products, which employs 210 people and generates annual turnover of €103M.  He has held various management positions in the last 20 years, beginning with Marketing Director Europe for the Fromarsac group, which owns the brands Tartare, Saint Moret, Chavroux and P’tit Louis, then CEO of Savencia in the USA, followed by CEO for Brands and CEO of the Long Life Europe division at Bonduelle. He then joined the start-up Argicool as chairman and CEO.  

Stéphane Soreau (EXEC M07) has been appointed Managing Director of RATP Real Estate, which employs 210 people, manages 500,000m² of industrial and tertiary surfaces, and generates annual turnover of €16M. Also a member of the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) and a qualified architect, he was Director of Operations for the subsidiary for 15 years, overseeing property management activities, heritage maintenance masterplans and the Urban Station offer, specialised in events organisation and corpoworking. 

Julien Zakoian (E98) has been appointed CEO of Indy, a Lyon-based start-up which automates accounting and income statements for freelance professionals and independent workers. His role will be to guide the scaling up of the company, which raised capital of €35M in 2021. His previous positions include Marketing and Communication Director with Veepee in Paris, Global Head of Marketing and Sales for the AirBnb Luxury Business Unit, and more recently CMO and Managing Director for North America with Meero in New York. 

David Alexandre (EXEC PROG 00) has been appointed CEO of Tilia France, a company which provides services, co-development and Franco-German consulting for the energy and environmental sector. He also graduated as an engineer from Arts et Métiers, and began his career in operational management for major urban public services, in the Paris region initially, then Berlin, where he oversaw the city’s drinking water supply. This was followed by various general management positions with the Veolia Group, as head of Veolia Waters Belgium, Veolia Germany and Veolia North America successively. He then joined Tilia, where he steers Europe’s leading public drainage company, serving 9 million inhabitants in the Ile-de-France area. He also teaches at New York University (NYU) and ESSEC.

Frédéric Fessan (E03) has been appointed Secretary General of the French National Public Service Institute (INSP), recently created to replace the former National School of Administration (ENA). He began his career with the Unilever group, where he worked for 11 years in financial roles in France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He then joined ENA, which led him to the position of chief judge with the Grand-Est Regional Audit Chamber (CRC). He also teaches public finance at Sciences Po Strasbourg.

Anthony Carvalho (M13) has been appointed Financial Manager of Limagrain, the world’s fourth largest seed supplier, operating in 57 countries with 9,000 employees and a portfolio including brands such as Vilmorin, Jacquet (bread) and Brossard (cakes). He acquired considerable experience in finance, through positions in investment funds followed by Manager of the Family Office with the Roullier group. He also gained experience in auditing and consulting thanks to a stint with Deloitte. 

Valérie Languille (E94) has been appointed Executive Vice President for Human Relations and CSR at Groupe TF1. She began her career as a consultant with Sociovision and Gemini Consulting (Capgemini Group), then joined the Caisse d’Épargne to manage human resources for a subsidiary, prior to taking over the management of recruitment and talent development for the Group. She then became Deputy Director of leader and management development with the BPCE group. After a move to Canal+, she held the successive positions of HR Director for Studio Canal, the pay-per-view and free TV division and finally for the whole group. Committed to promoting female leadership, she co-founded Financi'elles, is actively involved in ESSEC Women Alumni and is an administrator for the Tous Tes Possibles non-profit organisation.

Domitille Fafin (E10) has been appointed Director of Communication at Air Liquide. She began her career with Shell, where she held various positions in sourcing, prior to becoming Director for Communication and Institutional Relations for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. She then joined L'Oréal France as Head of Public Affairs and Communication, before joining Emmanuel Macron’s 2022 election campaign team as Deputy Director of Communication. 

Isabelle Narbéburu (E94) has been appointed Secretary General and Director of HR and Legal Affairs at Prisma Media. Her career began at Faurecia before a move to PSA Peugeot Citroën, where she held the successive positions of Deputy Director of Labour Relations and Social Innovation, HR Manager in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and Head of Leadership & Development for the Group. She then joined Essilor International as RH Director for its Europe and Africa-Turkey-CIS operations.

Marion Cardon (E04) has been appointed Marketing Director of the Korian Group, which manages nursing homes, post-op and rehabilitation clinics, assisted living facilities and homecare services, with 1,000 establishments and 90,000 beds in 7 European countries, with a turnover of €4.3bn and a payroll of 57,000. She spent the first 10 years of her career with Disneyland Paris, initially in the Strategic Planning entity, the in-house consultancy, followed by a position in strategic marketing. She then took over the marketing and digital management of Hôtels Barrière, before becoming Marketing and Digital Director of LVMH Hotel Management (Hôtels Cheval Blanc).

Antoine Sibieude (IMHI 12) has been appointed Director of Development France-Benelux at Marriott International. He began his career with Essilor before moving to Dubai for 6 years where he held positions in project management and financial analysis with Sofitel and Hilton. He then returned to Paris to join the Compass Group as Head of Development. This was followed by the position of Director of Development France & Belgium with IHG Hotels & Resorts.  

Corinne Mrejen (E88) has been appointed Managing Director of the Partners division and Chief Impact Officer of the Les Échos-Le Parisien group. She has held numerous managerial positions in the media sector, including CEO of M Publicité, Managing Director of Media.figaro, Managing Director of Publicis Media France, Director of Vivendi Brands & Media, Director of New Revenues for the Le Monde group and President of Publicat. 

Arnaud Marchand (BBA 12) has been appointed Managing Director of Klox, an advertising agency specialised in digital marketing and entertainment. He held various marketing positions with companies such as Ubisoft or Dassault Systèmes, before joining the adtech TVTY prior to its acquisition by Nielson, and then moved to the proptech White Bird as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.

Alexis Gonnet (M04) has been appointed Director at EY Parthenon. Also a graduate of INSEAD, he began his career with Carrefour, before joining Orange to take up various roles in project management and strategy. Alongside two partners, he then founded DCG Immobilier, which sells wooden houses to nature parks. His career subsequently took a new turn in consulting, with Greenwich Consulting initially, then as a freelancer. Later, he joined Virgin Mobile France, where he became Head of Sales, Operations and Programming, before heading to London to take up similar roles on a European level with Facebook. While still in London, he was appointed Head of EMEA Sales with Blippar and Customer Success Senior Director EMEA at Tapad. He then returned to France to steer the Agile @ Scale project for the transformation and reorganisation of the Renault Group. 

Nicolas Bouchery (E03) has been appointed Director of Investor Relations at InnovaFonds, which manages assets of more than €300M and a portfolio of some twenty participations. He has 20 years of experience in merchant banking (Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and HSBC), where he was responsible for equity product sales to institutional investors in France, Benelux and Scandinavia.

Gilles Pélisson (E79) has been promoted to the rank of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Also a Harvard Business School MBA graduate, he began his career with the Accor group in the US and Asia-Pacific, where he rose to the positions of Managing Director of Courtepaille restaurants and Co-President of Novotel hotels. He was then appointed to the positions of Managing Director of Eurodisney, CEO of Bouygues Telecom, CEO of Accor and CEO of Groupe TF1. He is also a Knight of the Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit. (See also the interview with Gilles Pélisson on our website - in French)

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