It is not the first time that AkzoNobel has found a new CEO in Switzerland. Grégoire Poux-Guillaume (52), unknown in the Netherlands, will become the chief executive of the paint group as of November. this was announced on Tuesday† Poux-Guillaume, a Frenchman, was for many years the CEO of Sulzer, Switzerland, specializing in industrial pumps and fluid technology. Ton Büchner, CEO of AkzoNobel between 2012 and 2017, previously headed the same company from Switzerland for five years.
It is a big step for the Frenchman. AkzoNobel, known for paint brands such as Flexa and Sikkens, generates a turnover of 9.6 billion euros, three times as much as Sulzer. Investors did not react so positively to the news: the stock has fallen by 3 percent since the announcement.
Poux-Guillaume was trained as a mechanical engineer and also studied at Harvard Business School. He has work experience at Total, McKinsey and General Electric, among others. He became CEO of Sulzer at the age of 45.
His predecessor at Akzo, the Belgian Thierry Vanlancker, had indicated that he wanted to stop. Under his leadership, the chemicals division was sold for more than 10 billion euros. And he cut staff to be more competitive with American paint giant PPG.
AkzoNobel is currently suffering from macroeconomic uncertainties. Lockdowns in China, for example, are disrupting the production of coatings. In a press release about the appointment of Poux-Guillaume, AkzoNobel praised his experience building “successful, profitable companies in challenging circumstances”.
At Sulzer, Poux-Guillaume managed to curb the dominance of the Russian Cypriot oligarch and major shareholder Viktor Vekselberg, who also ended up on the American sanctions list. Due to Vekselberg’s interest in the company, Sulzer temporarily no longer doing business in Poland†
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 30, 2022