Gemalto announces future CEO succession
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Amsterdam, April 5, 2016 - Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world's
leading digital security company, today announced that Chief Executive Officer
Olivier Piou has decided to retire from the Company at the end of August, 2016.
Mr. Philippe Vallée, currently Chief Operating Officer of Gemalto, will be
proposed by the Board of directors at the annual general meeting of shareholders
to become an Executive Director of the Board and the Company's new CEO,
effective September 1, 2016. Mr. Piou will be proposed by the Board to continue
to serve as a Non-Executive Director of the Company as of the same date.
Olivier Piou, 57, who joined in 1981, has led the Company 18 years, first known
as the Smart Cards division of Schlumberger. He introduced it to the stock
market in 2004 under the name of Axalto, and then conducted the successful
merger of equals with Gemplus, which created Gemalto in 2006. Under his
leadership Gemalto became the foremost digital security company, doing business
in 190 countries with more than 14,000 employees of over 100 nationalities. Most
people today have Gemalto technology in their pocket, be it a banking card with
a chip to pay, a SIM in their mobile phone to communicate and access the
Internet, an electronic passport to travel safely, a corporate authentication
badge to work in and away from the office, as well as many other smart objects
whose capabilities are enabled and remotely managed by the Company's software,
platforms and services.
Philippe Vallée, 51, joined the Company in 1992. He is Gemalto's Chief Operating
Officer, with operational responsibility for all the Company's businesses. In
this position, he confirmed his visionary approach as well as his superior
skills to manage a truly global and diversified business. He successfully led
critical projects for the Company such as the EMV ramp up in the US, the
integration of SafeNet, the Group's biggest acquisition to reinforce Gemalto
presence in the rapidly growing space of cyber security, and the development of
Government Programs to capture the growth of this expanding market. Mr. Vallée
has 27 years of experience in the digital security space, both on the embedded
software and product side and on the back-end data center and cloud technology
side. He graduated from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble
engineering school and from the ESSEC business school. He has held a number of
executive roles in Gemalto, during which he developed his technological
knowledge, his marketing skills and his leadership capacity, including Executive
Vice President Telecom, Vice President of Sales & Business Development, and
Chief Technology Officer. He has international leadership experience, having
served in senior positions in Europe and Asia. In addition to his role in the
Company's achievements for the Telecom industry, Mr. Vallée was the architect of
Gemalto's successful development in the Internet of Things, Enterprise and
Platforms & Services activities, significantly contributing to its
transformation.
Alex Mandl, Chairman of Gemalto, said: "Olivier has been a leader in
transforming both Gemalto and the industry during his time as CEO. In 2006, we
had one main product line and the business performance relied almost entirely on
the sales of SIMs for mobile phones. Now Gemalto provides the broadest portfolio
of technologies in the industry used by tens of thousands of businesses and
governmental agencies worldwide and delivers two essential functions for modern
digital services: authentication and data protection. As CEO, he has built a
strong platform for continuous growth and consistently created value for
shareholders, delivering superior results even in the sometimes very challenging
external environment. On behalf of the Board, and the wider Gemalto team, deep
thanks are due to Olivier for his passion, vision, superior execution and
leadership."
"The Board is delighted to have someone of Philippe Vallée's experience and
leadership within Gemalto to appoint to the role of CEO. Philippe Vallée's
strong business acumen and superior management skills across a range of senior
executive roles make him an excellent CEO candidate, highly qualified to take
the Company forward. The Board looks forward to working with Philippe and the
entire Gemalto team, suppliers and customers to continue to build on the strong
momentum that has been created over the past years."
"To support the delivery of the 2017 long range plan he architected, the Board
was pleased that Mr. Piou accepted to remain in the Board as a non-executive
director. The Board sees significant benefits in retaining Mr. Piou as a
director. His vision of the fast changing security market place and his
understanding of our teams' capabilities will be very valuable for the Board's
strategy evaluation, Company development and succession planning
responsibilities. The Board anticipates that Mr. Piou's continuing commitment to
the Company will be strongly valued by customers, investors and employees."
Olivier Piou said "We always take a long-term view about our business and manage
change proactively. After such a large number of years at the helm, I believe
that this autumn will be the right time to bring in a new leadership, which is
ready and able to execute on our next phase of growth. September 2016 is the
time when we accelerate the preparation of the Company's next strategic plan. By
transitioning management then, I want to give the new CEO the space to design
what will come next for Gemalto. Gemalto is a great company with a strong market
position and a very unique, customer focused culture. We have selected and
positioned the team well for many years through our rigorous people development
processes. Along with the Board, we are always prepared for such potential
change. It has been an incredible journey and privilege to lead Gemalto during
all those momentous and exciting times. I am tremendously proud of what the
Gemalto team of employees, customers, investors and partners has achieved
together. Philippe is an excellent choice to lead Gemalto."
"Going forward, my professional projects are with the Board of Gemalto, where I
will be happy to continue to serve, and the Board of Nokia. I also have a number
of personal interests that I intend to pursue, scientific and educational in
particular, which I did not have the time to develop during my long and
demanding CEO tenure. Having had the chance to go to so many places, there are
many I want to return to, in order to enjoy them through a more peaceful
schedule."
Philippe Vallée said, "I am really honored to be proposed. All together we have
created a tremendous foundation for future growth. Authentication and data
protection are truly essential to modern digital services and the products,
platforms, software and services that Gemalto provides are fundamental elements
of the 21st century way of life."
"I have really enjoyed working jointly with Olivier over these last 10 years,
especially during my latest assignment as the Company's Chief Operating Officer.
Gemalto is an amazing company, made of highly motivated women and men, and I am
keen to take the lead to continue its development, focusing first on reaching
our 2017 goals and preparing our next phase of expansion. I strongly believe in
teamwork and in the coherence and continuity of decisions that we take. My
commitment is to work very closely with the Board, our employees, our customers,
our shareholders and our partners for mutual continuing success."
Notes
End of Mr. Piou's employment with the Company
Mr. Piou will retire as CEO on August 31, and his employment contract with the
Company will end on December 31, 2016. He will receive in March 2017 his
performance-based annual variable compensation computed in relation to the
achievement of his 2016 objectives. Following the most recent corporate social
responsibility best practices which promote that CEO's should not benefit from
incentive awards in relation to periods in which they do not contribute to their
company, the Board and Mr. Piou have decided in full agreement that Mr. Piou's
maximum number of restricted share units eligible to vest (135,000) will be
reduced prorata temporis to his employment by the Company (i.e. down to a
maximum of 96,250 shares); that the financial performance criteria which these
restricted shares units are subject to will continue to be applied; and that the
vesting dates will remain unchanged. The number of shares resulting from the
prorata temporis, performance criteria, and applicable social charges and taxes
computations will be delivered in 2018 to Mr. Piou. The Company does not provide
for any supplemental pension plan to the CEO during or after his employment
period. Mr. Piou will not benefit from any additional payments relating to his
retirement.
Biography of Mr. Piou
Olivier Piou has been twelve years the Company's CEO, since its initial public
offering (IPO) in May 2004, eighteen years as its business leader and thirty
five years as its employee. He joined Schlumberger as a production engineer in
1981 after graduating from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in 1980 and serving his then
mandatory military duty in the Alpine division. After several assignments in
France and the United States in the oilfield services activities of
Schlumberger, he joined the Schlumberger Electronic Transactions business in
1993, where he drove the internationalization and the transition from memory to
smart microprocessor technologies. Olivier Piou was promoted General Manager of
the Schlumberger smart card business in 1998. He successfully led the Company -
then called Axalto - to its May 18, 2004 IPO on the stock market, as the
Company's first CEO and a member of the Board of Directors. He then initiated
and successfully managed the merger of equals with Gemplus which created Gemalto
on June 2, 2006. He has been since then the Gemalto CEO and a member of the
Board of Directors. Olivier Piou was also formerly a member of the Board INRIA,
the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control;
President of Eurosmart, the international non-for-profit association in Brussels
which represents the smart card industry; and a member of the Board of Alcatel-
Lucent. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Nokia since January 2016.
Olivier Piou is married, has three children, and is a Knight of the French
Legion of Honor.
Biography of Mr. Vallée
Philippe Vallée has been the Company's Chief Operating Officer since January
2014, with operational responsibility for all the Company's businesses. He is a
graduate in engineering from Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG)
and from the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC)
business school. He began his career with Matra Communication as a product
manager on the first generation of GSM mobile phones. Mr. Vallée joined Gemplus
in 1992. He held a number of positions in marketing, product management and
sales in Europe and in Asia, including Vice-President of Gemplus Technologies
Asia based in Singapore. He was afterwards promoted Vice-President of Marketing,
and then President of the Gemplus Telecom business unit. After the merger of
equals between Axalto and Gemplus which created Gemalto in 2006, he served as
the Company's Chief Technology Officer until 2007 and was appointed as Executive
Vice-President in charge of the Telecommunications Business Unit until 2013. He
is married and has three children.
|Investor Relations |Corporate Communication |Media Relations Agency
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|Winston Yeo |Isabelle Marand |Suzanne Bakker
|M.: +33 6 2947 0814 |M.: +33 6 1489 1817 |M. : +31 6 1136 8659
|winston.yeo(at)gemalto.com |isabelle.marand(at)gemalto.com|suzanne.bakker(at)citigateff.nl
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|sebastien.liagre(at)gemalto.com| |
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About Gemalto
Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO) is the global leader in digital security,
with 2015 annual revenues of ?3.1 billion and customers in over 180 countries.
We bring trust to an increasingly connected world.
Our technologies and services enable businesses and governments to authenticate
identities and protect data so they stay safe and enable services in personal
devices, connected objects, the cloud and in between.
Gemalto's solutions are at the heart of modern life, from payment to enterprise
security and the internet of things. We authenticate people, transactions and
objects, encrypt data and create value for software - enabling our clients to
deliver secure digital services for billions of individuals and things.
Our 14,000+ employees operate out of 118 offices, 45 personalization and data
centers, and 27 research and software development centers located in 52
countries.
For more information visit
www.gemalto.com, or follow (at)gemalto on Twitter.
Press release (PDF):
http://hugin.info/159293/R/2000468/738010.pdf
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(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Gemalto via GlobeNewswire
[HUG#2000468]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 05.04.2016 - 00:11 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 461788
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