On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Jacq[ds_preview]ues Saadé appoints his son Rodolphe Saadé as Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group.
Jacques Saadé remains Chairman of the Board of Directors. After having left Lebanon to protect his family from civil war, Jacques Saadé moved to Marseilles where he set up the Compagnie Maritime d’Affrètement (CMA) in 1978, with one shipping line linking Marseilles, Livorno (Italy), Lattakia (Syria) and Beirut (Lebanon).
With only one vessel and one line, CMA was born. The company experienced incredible growth, based on Jacques Saadé’s faith in the development of worldwide trade and the crucial role of the container in the global shipping industry. By combining a strategy of strong internal growth with targeted acquisitions leading to the conquest of new markets, such as CGM in 1996 or Delmas in 2005, his company became number three ranked in 2006.
He stated: »Rodolphe has proven himself over the years, and he has my deepest trust as Chief Executive Officer of the Group. I know that, with Rodolphe as CEO, with Farid Salem and Tanya Saadé Zeenny, our Executive Officers, and all our teams around the world, the Group will continue its development with the same commitment and passion”.
Rodolphe Saadé was previously Executive Officer at CMA CGM. He joined the Group in 1994 in the U.S., then worked in Hong Kong before coming back to Marseilles to head different shipping lines from 1997 to 2000. In 2009, he took over responsibility of the Group’s financial restructuring.
In 2015 and 2016, he successfully led the voluntary general cash offer for Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a Singapore based container shipping company. In April of last year, he conducted the talks leading to the signature of the largest operational agreement of the sector with three Asian competitors to form »Ocean Alliance« joinded by Cosco, OOCL and Evergreen.
