Jean-Louis Chaussade elected Chairman of IPEMED’s Advisory Board
Published : Friday 09 December 2011

The Advisory Board of the Institut de Prospective Economique du Monde Méditerranéen, IPEMED, met today to elect its new chairman, as well as three vice-chairmen.

Jean-Louis Chaussade, chief executive officer of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT and a founding member of IPEMED, was elected chairman, replacing Gérard Mestrallet, chief executive officer of GDF SUEZ, whose term had come to an end.

As part of his chairmanship duties, Jean-Louis Chaussade intends to continue IPEMED’s internationalization activities through mobilizing increasing numbers of companies from the South and East Mediterranean in the ambit of the Euro-Mediterranean Competitiveness Council (EMCC). The EMCC was created in 2009 by Gérard Mestrallet with a vocation of gathering around one hundred companies from throughout the region that share a commitment to the Mediterranean and that hope, by sharing added value more equally between the two sides, to make the zone into a territory of joint, sustainable and socially responsible growth. 

Isidro Fainé, chairman of CaixaBank, became a member of IPEMED. He was elected vice-chairman of the Advisory Board along with Neemat Frem, chairman of the Indevco group and the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, and Jean-Luc Decornoy, chairman of the board of KPMG France and deputy chairman of KPMG EMA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), both of whom are also founding members of IPEMED.

Jean-Louis Chaussade is chief executive officer of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, one of the world’s leading water and waste solution companies. With 79,554 employees, the group has a presence in all five continents. In 2010, it achieved a turnover of 13,869 million euro and invested 73 million euro in R&D. The group accomplished 7% of its turnover in Africa and the Middle East.

Jean-Luc Decornoy is chairman of the board of KPMG France and deputy chairman of KPMG EMA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing audit, advisory and tax services.

Isidro Fainé is chairman of CaixaBank, one of the largest banks in the euro zone by stock market capitalization and Spain’s leading retail bank, with a network of over 5,200 branches and 10.4 million customers.

Neemat Frem is chief executive officer of Indevco, a Lebanese industrial group producing plastic and paper packaging that employs 7,500 people throughout the world. Since 2010 he has also been chairman of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.