Christophe André appointed Managing Director of Arkema's Thiochemicals business unit

04-04-2012: Christophe André, 41 years old, has joined the Arkema Group as Managing Director of the Thiochemicals business unit, replacing Philippe Chartres who is heading the construction project for Arkema’s first thiochemicals platform in Asia.

Christophe André is an Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications engineer, he also graduated from ESSEC, and holds an MBA from INSEAD. After holding a number of posts in telecommunications, in particular with Nortel, in 2001 he joined specialty chemicals manufacturer Rohm and Haas to oversee the European development of the Monomers Division, which he later headed, before running the Adhesives and Packaging Division. In 2008, he joined Arjowiggins, the world’s leading manufacturer of creative and technical paper, as head of Arjowiggins Graphic, one of the company’s five divisions, a position he held until he joined Arkema.

Paul Leonard, 51 years old, has joined Arkema as Group Director Safety Environment.

An Irish national, he graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) with an MSc in Engineering. Paul Léonard spent his entire career in the Dow Chemical group in various industrial positions, in China, the United States, Germany and France. He has held operational responsibilities in several sites, in particular as plant manager and Safety and Environment director, as well as manager of industrial projects.

Gérard Langlais, 59 years old, a graduate mining engineer from the Nancy Ecole des Mines, with an MSc from Stanford, has been appointed Director Sustainable Development at Arkema.

Gérard Langlais has spent his entire career in industry. He held positions in research and development at Isover Saint-Gobain, before becoming a business engineer at Elf Aquitaine. He later held commercial executive posts in the chemical branch of the Elf and Total groups, before becoming Logistics Director at Arkema at the time of its creation.