Arnaud Lagardère
Chairman and Chief Executive officer
Independence rate*
Average age
Feminization rate*
* Excluding employee representatives
Chairman and Chief Executive officer
Arnaud Lagardère
Chairman and Chief Executive officer
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 18 March 1961
Arnaud Lagardère holds a DEA post-graduate degree in economics from the University of Paris Dauphine. He was appointed Director and Chief Executive Officer of MMB (which became Lagardère SCA and then Lagardère SA) in 1987. He was Chairman of the US company Grolier Inc. from 1994 to 1998. Arnaud Lagardère was appointed Managing Partner of the Company by way of a decision by Arjil Commanditée-Arco approved by the Supervisory Board on 26 March 2003 and his term of office was subsequently renewed in 2009, 2015 and 2020.
He has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lagardère SA on June 30, 2021, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre on November 8, 2023.
Since 6 November 2023, Arnaud Lagardère has also been General and Managing Partner of Lagardère Radio SCA, which brings together the activities of Europe 1, Europe 2 and RFM.
Independent Director
Chair of the Appointments, Remuneration and CSR Committee
Member of the Audit Committee
Virginie Banet
Independent Director
Chair of the Appointments, Remuneration and CSR Committee
Member of the Audit Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 18 January 1966
A graduate of the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, with a degree in Economic Science and a diploma from the SFAF (French Society of Financial Analysts), Virginie Banet began her career as a financial analyst at SBS, Warburg and then Deutsche Bank specialising in capital goods and aerospace and defence for Europe (1989-2003) before becoming an investment banker and Head of M&A Aerospace & Defence at Deutsche Bank and then at Airbus (2003-2008). From 2008 to 2010, she was a member of the Executive Committee of Lagardère Média, head of investor relations and financial market communications policy. From 2011 to 2014, she was a member of the Executive Committee of Natixis, Director of customer relations and advisory services, head of banking teams in France and abroad as well as traditional financing. In 2014, Virginie Banet joined Ondra as a Partner, and then joined Nomura as an investment banker in 2015. In September 2019, she founded her own financial consulting company Iolite Financial Consulting and became Senior Advisor at AlixPartners and Brunswick. Virginie Banet was appointed to the Supervisory Board of Vallourec in February 2020 where she sat on the Finance and Audit Committee, until Vallourec’s governance structure was combined into a single Board of Directors in July 2021. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Mediobanca SpA and of the Supervisory Board of Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale. Virginie Banet is also co-Chair of the French Institute of Directors’ (IFA) ESG Club, and is therefore deeply engaged on CSR matters. In October 2022, she participated in the ESG Club’s Matinale event on corporate social responsibility and jointly edited a report on dealing with the challenge for boards of managing human capital and the meaning of social responsibility, as well as a report published in November 2023 discussing sustainability as a new board commitment.
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Independent Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Valérie Bernis
Independent Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 9 December 1958
Valérie Bernis is a graduate of the Institut Supérieur de Gestion and the Université de Sciences Économiques in Limoges. Having spent two years as Press and Communications Officer for the French Prime Minister’s Office, in 1996 she joined Compagnie de Suez as Executive Vice-President – Communications, and then in 1999 was appointed Deputy CEO in charge of Corporate Communications and Sustainable Development. During that time, she also served for five years as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Paris Première, a French TV channel. Appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Engie in 2001 until 2016, Valérie Bernis was also Executive Vice-President — Financial and Corporate Communications and Sustainable Development, as well as being Vice President of the Engie Foundation. Until end-December 2022, she was a member of the Board of Directors, Nomination Committee and Audit Committee of L’Occitane International SA.
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Director
Yannick Bolloré
Director
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 1 February 1980
Yannick Bolloré is a graduate of the University of Paris Dauphine. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Havas group, one of the world’s largest communications groups, with revenue of €2.6 billion and more than 22,000 employees in 100 countries.
Yannick Bolloré co-founded the production company WY Productions in 2002 (Hell, Yves Saint Laurent). In 2006, he joined his family group, the Bolloré group, to launch and develop its media division. Within five years, Bolloré Média (D8, D17) became France’s leading independent French TV group and was subsequently sold to Canal+, making the Bolloré group a shareholder in Vivendi.
He joined the Havas group in 2011 and became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2013. He initiated a major restructuring of the group to make it the most integrated and forward-thinking in its industry. In 2017, Vivendi obtained control of the Havas group.
Yannick Bolloré was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Vivendi SE in April 2018.
He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008 and has received numerous honours and awards from international associations and the business press. He is also a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
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Independent Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Laura Carrere
Independent Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth: 22 March 1977
A graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Laura Carrere is Assistant Managing Director, Development and Investor Relations, Eiffel Investment Group. Laura Carrere has over 16 years of experience in investment banking at Société Générale, where she was Vice President in structured finance for technology, media & telecoms (from 2003 to 2007), then Managing Director of equity transactions for large companies (from 2008 to 2016), before being promoted to Managing Director, responsible for coverage for Family offices & Holdings at the Investment Bank (from 2017 to 2019). From 2018 to 2019, Laura Carrere was also a member of the Board of Directors of ALD, the European leader in car leasing solutions. She also served as Commercial Director Southern Europe at EcoAct from 2020 to 2021.
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Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Fatima Fikree
Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Nationality : Qatari
Date of birth : 13 April 1992
Fatima Fikree is a Director at the Qatar Investment Authority. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, the Tepper School of Business. Fatima Fikree began her career in the financial industry at Barclays plc and joined the Qatar Investment Authority in 2017. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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Employee director
Marie Flavion
Employee director
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 9 june 1962
Marie Flavion is currently Operational Marketing Product Manager at the Hatier group’s Diffusion Department, in charge of relations between diffusion and publishers and event communication, a position she has held since 2014. She joined the Hatier group’s Diffusion Department in 1990, first as a project manager, before taking up the position of Promotion and Communication Manager from 2000 to 2014.
She began her career at Éditions Larousse in 1985 as an archivist and editor.
Marie Flavion holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Paris Sorbonne and a DEUG in modern literature.
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Employee director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Pascal Jouen
Employee director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 28 October 1962
Pascal Jouen is a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Angoulême and has been a sales executive with Larousse since 1991.
He has held a number of different positions within the employee representative bodies of Larousse and the Lagardère group.
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Independent Director
Chair of the Audit Committee
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Véronique Morali
Independent Director
Chair of the Audit Committee
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 12 September 1958
Véronique Morali holds a master’s degree in business law and is a graduate of the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and the ESCP business school. She joined the ENA and the Inspection Générale des Finances (French Inspectorate of General Finances), which she left in 1990 to join Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière when he founded Fimalac. As a Board member and the General Manager of Fimalac from 1990 to 2007, she played a major role in defining the strategy and international expansion of this listed group with its founder. Véronique Morali is currently Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of Fimalac and Director of Development.
Since 2013, she has been Chair of the Board of Directors of Webedia, Fimalac’s digital division and a key player in the French media and digital landscape, building a unique global network of media, talent, events and services on the strongest themes in entertainment and leisure.
Alongside her activities at Fimalac, in 2005 she co-founded Force Femmes, a non-profit association, which she chairs, with the aim of accompanying and supporting women over 45 in their efforts to return to work and create their own business. From 2011 to 2014, Véronique Morali was Chair of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. She is also a co-founder of Women Corporate Directors Paris (a network of women board members) and a member of Siècle.
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Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 26 April 1964
Arnaud de Puyfontaine is a graduate of ESCP Business School (1988), Institut Multimédias (1992) and Harvard Business School (2000). He started his career as a consultant at Arthur Andersen and then in 1989 worked as a project manager at Rhône-Poulenc Pharma in Indonesia. In 1990, he joined Le Figaro as Executive Director. In 1995, as a member of the founding team of the Emap Group in France, he headed Télé Poche and Studio Magazine, managed the acquisition of Télé Star and Télé Star Jeux, and launched the Emap Star Division, before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Emap France in 1998. In 1999, he was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Emap France, and, in 2000, joined the Executive Board of Emap PLC. He led several M&A deals, and concomitantly, from 2000 to 2005, served as Chairman of EMW, the Emap/Wanadoo digital subsidiary. In August 2006, he was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Editions Mondadori France. In June 2007, he became General Manager of all digital business for the Mondadori group.
In April 2009, Arnaud de Puyfontaine joined US media group Hearst as Chief Executive Officer of its UK subsidiary, Hearst UK. In 2011, on behalf of the Hearst group, he led the acquisition from the Lagardère group of 102 international magazine titles, and, in June 2011, was appointed Executive Vice President of Hearst Magazines International. In August 2013, he was appointed Managing Director for Western Europe. He has also been Chairman of ESCP Europe Alumni. From January to June 2014, Arnaud de Puyfontaine was a member of the Vivendi Management Board and Senior Executive Vice President in charge of its media and content operations.
Since 24 June 2014, he has been Chairman of the Management Board of Vivendi.
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Independent Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nicolas Sarkozy
Independent Director
Member of the Appointments, Remunerations and CSR Committee
Nationality : French
Date of birth : 28 January 1955
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 6th President of France’s Fifth Republic (2007-2012).
Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine (1983-2002), National Assembly Representative for Hauts-de-Seine (1988-2002), President of the General Council for Hauts-de-Seine (2004-2007), Minister for the Budget (1993-1995), Minister for Communications (1994-1995), Government spokesman (1993-1995), Minister of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Freedoms (2002-2004), Minister of State, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry (2004), Minister of State, Minister of the Interior and Town and Country Planning (2005-2007). He was also the elected leader of French political parties UMP (2004-2007) and Les Républicains (2014-2016).
A trained lawyer, Nicolas Sarkozy is married and has four children. He is the author of several books, including Libre, Témoignage, La France pour la vie, Tout pour la France, Passions, Le Temps des tempêtes and Promenades.
Nicolas Sarkozy also provides consulting services to several international groups, including chairing the Advisory Board of Corsair, and acting as a consultant to the Management Committee of the Marietton group. He sits on the Advisory Boards of Chargeurs (listed company) as well as being a consultant to Axian and SC Varsano.
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