ex-TNT boss Marie-Christine Lombard becomes Geodis CEO

Marie-Christine Lombard, who resigned unexpectedly from TNT Express last month, has been named as the new chief executive officer for French logistics group Geodis. The company’s parent, French railway operator SNCF, made the announcement yesterday, as it laid out a reorganisation of its Transport and Logistics Division.

Lombard, 54, angered some of her senior colleagues with the timing of her departure from TNT Express, with the company currently in the process of persuading European Commission antitrust officials to allow its acquisition by rivals UPS.

She officially started her role as SNCF Geodis CEO yesterday (24th October).

Pierre Blayau, who has held chairman and CEO responsibilities of SNCF Geodis since January 2001, and will remain has chairman of the company as Lombard takes the CEO role.

Previous Geodis CEO Jean-Louis Demeulenaere is leaving the company to pursue new projects, the company said.

Blayau said Lombard was a recognised sector professional, and that her joining Geodis would give employees a “new sense of momentum in a difficult economic environment”.

“Skills”

SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy said: “Given the crisis in volumes in the goods transport sector, I fully support the changes made by Pierre Blayau.

“The arrival of Marie-Christine Lombard at the SNCF group as chief executive officer of Geodis will strengthen the teams and ready Geodis for a new phase of profitable growth. She will place all her skills at the service of the Transport and Logistics division,” added the rail company chairman.

Geodis, which describes itself as Europe’s fourth largest logistics company, has a workforce of 30,000 and operates in 120 countries. Its activities include groupage and express transport, freight forwarding, logistics and storage, as well as road transport and global supply chain business.

The company has subsidiaries including freight and forwarding firm Geodis Wilson, groupage and express firm Geodis Calberson, Geodis Logistics, road transport unit Geodis BM and supply chain unit Geodis Global Supply Chain Optimisation.

Lombard

The new Geodis chief began her career as head of merchandising at New York-based department store chain Lord & Taylor in 1982, before moving into the finance sector with roles at the Chemical Bank and Paribas in New York, before moving to Paribas’ offices in Lyon, France, from 1991 to 1993.

Lombard joined TPG Group as chief finance officer in 1993, a company which later became part of TNT in 2005, and was Chairman and CEO of Jet Services from 1998 before it was acquired by TNT in 2002 to become TNT Express France.

She became CEO of TNT Express in 2004.