Meet the management team
of LACROIX Group

Chief Executive Officer 

Graduate of the Lyon Ecole de Management [Business School] (EM), he began his career in the Telecoms and &Multimedia sector. Joining Vivendi Universal Net in 2001, he successively occupied the positions of Product Manager and Key Accounts Manager until 2003.
In 2004, he joined LACROIX Electronics as Strategic Marketing Manager before becoming Chief Executive Officer in 2006. In September 2013, he became Chief Executive Officer of the LACROIX Group. In October 2015, he became the Chairman of the Board. Since 26 July 2018, he has occupied the position of President & Chief Executive Officer.
In April 2017 he was named president of the WE Network, the cluster that brings together the actors is the Western electronics network and he is an organising member of the World Electronic Forum 2017. In May 2018, he became Vice-President of the Strategic Committee of the French subsidiary dedicated to the electronics industry.

Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice-President Finance

Graduate of EDHEC Lille, specialised in Audit and Management Control, he began his professional career with Salustro Reydel, where he specialised in auditing companies working with road construction.
In 2005, he joined LACROIX Group and created the Audit and Internal Control department, allowing him to deepen his knowledge of each of the Group’s divisions. During this period, he also carried out support missions in Management Control or Group Treasury Management.
In 2010 he took over the Group’s Financial management. Since 26 July 2018, he has been Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice-President Finance.

Corporate Director

Joined the Supervisory Board in 2010, which in July 2018 became the Board of Directors.

Founder and President & Chief Executive Officer of Niji, providing guidance and Technology for the digital transformation of businesses.

After schooling in Strasbourg, he joined Sup Telecom Paris. In 1988, the young engineer joined the public service. He was Officer for Posts and Telecommunications – today Orange – first in Egypt and then in Paris. In the private sector, he honed his experience at Sema Group. However, soon he would have but one ambition: to be his own boss. In September 2001, he co-founded Niji – the Japanese word for rainbow – simultaneously in Rennes, where he still has his registered office, and in Paris in order, he says, to “stay in touch with the big groups”: “To exist and develop over the long term in our professions, I think it essential to have a Parisian base”.
Since then the business, positioned on the professions of digital strategy guidance, digital design and technological transformation, has forged its path. With a 600-strong workforce in Rennes, Paris, Nantes, Lille, Lyon and, more recently, Bordeaux, Niji continues to recruit and it will doubtless establish more centres of operation; keep an eye on Strasbourg, birthplace of its founder. In 2011 and 2013 arrived two small sister companies: Kurmi-Software, a software company already in existence in the United States, and Ikumbi-Solutions, the preferred partner of the giant Sales Force. This added nearly 100 valuable employees to the “group”.
Hugues Meili divides his week between Paris and Rennes in the west of France, where he lives and where he is also Chairman of the Board of Bretagne Developpement Innovation and involved in numerous businesses and initiatives, economic and innovative.

Corporate Director

Joined the Supervisory Board in 2013, which in July 2018 became the Board of Directors.

President & Chief Executive Officer of the Armor group, global specialist in ink chemistry and printing technologies.

After receiving his diploma from HEC in 1986, Hubert de Boisredon chose to put his qualification at the service of a developing country. He went to Chile in partnership with Banco de Desarrollo (es), where he
set up and managed the first Chilean venture capital company. Then, with a friend, he established the Contigo micro-credits bank, a micro-credit organisation inspired by Muhammad Yunus that he ran until 1993.
The challenge was great: give access to credit to over 400,000 small businesses excluded from traditional bank credits, at the time employing half the working population of Chile.
He then pursued an international career, spending 11 years with Rhône-Poulenc Chimie (which became Rhodia in 1998) as
Sales-Marketing Director, managing the profit centre of the business unit “Photo& Polymerisation Inhibitors”, then as deputy managing director
of Rhodia Japan and, finally, vice-president and Asia-Pacific managing director in Hong Kong. He acquired several Chinese businesses, and so was confronted for the first time with the challenges of sustainable development (employment rights,
factory pollution, lack of hygiene etc.). Hubert de Boisredon then became managing director of
pharmaceutical ingredients for Rhodia. Wishing to implement confidence-based management and to manage a long-term business project, he chose to direct a TWA. He
joined the Armor group in 2004 as managing director at the request of Antoine Rufenacht and his family, then major shareholders in the company.
Armor is a French industrial group specialising in the printing consumables, oriented towards societal innovation.
The company has 1,850 employees, of which 691 are in France, and a turnover of 257 million Euros in 2017, a 6% rise.
The company is based in Nantes and the group has 24 sites across the world. Hubert de Boisredon became, in 2008, shareholder and President & Chief Executive Officer of Armor within the context of an LBO managed with the Lyonnaise holding company Orfite.
In April 2014, Hubert de Boisredon and the Armor management team bought the majority industrial equity capital in Lyonnaise Orfite
. They chose long-term development founded on values of humanism, innovation and industrial growth. The revival is built on a unique form of industrial capital management and innovation (CMII). It is supported by
new investors including Arkéa capital, partner who invested 30 million Euros in the CMII

Distinctions
Entrepreneur of the Year in the Western region in 2013
Knight of the Order of Merit
Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2017

Corporate Director

Joined the Supervisory Board in 2006, which in July 2018 became the Board of Directors.

Manager of PRO.POSITIONS, Director of NOVAPLUS

More than a career plan, a vocation has guided the steps of Pierre Tiers through the world of finance. By taking, on 1 December at the age of 53, executive management of the IPO, a major western region investment capital company with some 125 portfolio holdings valued at 127 million Euros, he was merely extending his original project.
A man from Lille moulded by ESLSCA (School of Applied Commercial Sciences) Paris, he wanted to participate in SME financing. Yves Lenormand, founder of the regional development company Sodero, brought him to Nantes in 1977: “He became my spiritual father in the profession”, relates Pierre Tiers who, in 1983, became financial director and then managing director. This at a time when the business, shared between credit, leasing and capital investment in regional enterprises, was in full flow. However, Sodero, like many such companies, experienced a crisis after 1992. It was Pierre Tiers who undertook its restructuring. Four years later, things were better. So he suggested that Ecureil buy the company. Entering the management of Caisse d’Epargne in the Pays de la Loire in 1999, he managed the business markets, also attaching himself to the social housing and third sector, notably medical-social.
“The main thread throughout my career, has been my interest in the financing that structures businesses,” he observes. “It is exciting to discuss strategy with directors, their investments, their difficulties.” By joining IPO, he re-centred himself on investment capital to the detriment of credit, but remained anchored in regional development. Established 25 years ago, IPO is listed and the subject of an amicable tender offer by the CIC in 2004. Its geographical extent, which linked Normandy to Aquitaine, was further extended. “Like Sodero, IPO has an approach that takes account of regional development, notes Pierre Tiers. These two companies attached to maintain the power of business management in the region.” His interest in regional development led Pierre Tiers to lead, as president of the Nantes-Atlantique Place Financière [Nantes-Atlantic Financial Forum], which unites Nantes financial establishments, the Start-West forum. Every year, this brings together innovative project developers and investors. A success for which he is congratulated by Philippe de Portzamparc, President of the investment company by the same name: “Pierre Tiers knew how to work his way around this initiative. He is a man of conviction with practical sense, natural discretion and also very good knowledge of the business world.

Corporate Director

Joined the Supervisory Board in 2018, which in July 2018 became the Board of Directors.

Director of the societal commitment of the LA POSTE Group.

For 6 years she was President & Chief Executive Officer of Docapost (subsidiary of the La Poste group, 450M€ turnover, 4,500 employees) specialising in the digital transition of businesses and institutions for their back office client, HR processes and all their sensitive transactions; Docapost is particularly represented in the world of banking, insurance and utilities. Muriel Barnéoud led the transformation of the Docapost product mix from a profession of desktop publisher to that of a digital platform operator, from an industrial profession of digitalisation to that of an actor in digital confidence.
She also launched the La Poste group IoT programme (digital hub and French IoT) presented in Las Vegas.
After initial experience at Arthur Anderson, she joined the La Poste group in 1994.
In particular, she occupied the position of deputy Chief Executive Officer of Courrier, as industry director, where she piloted Courrier’s large restructuring projects and production process re-engineering.
As Industry Director, she ensured the non-executive presidency of two logistical holdings of the La Poste group and piloted the purchase grouping for electric vehicles (“Bailly” plan).
With Docapost, she has presided over a dozen Boards of Directors.
She has also served on the supervisory board of the Xange Private Equity, a La Poste group capital investment company and on the Supervisory Board of La Banque Postale IARD.
In the name of Docapost, she has served on the board of directors of the professional association Syntec Numérique, where she presided over the publishers.
She is a member of the CCIR Ile de France and chair of the management board of the CNAM Abbé Grégoire foundation.
As an independent director, she is member of the supervisory board of Inside Secure, Euronext, one of the leaders in on-board solutions and mobile transaction security and in IoT, and of Akka Technologies, Euronext, one of the European leaders in engineering and technology consulting.
Muriel is very active in the Finance Innovation hub, where she has co-piloted several working groups and contributed to the white papers “bien vieillir à l’heure du digital [watch for the digital hour]”, “Big data et assurances [Big data and insurance] and “Banque &
Fintech: enjeux d’innovation dans la Banque de Détail [Fintech Bank: innovation challenges in the Retail Bank]”. Muriel Barnéoud is a graduate of the IEP [Institute for Political Studies] Paris and the ENSPTT [post and telecommunications school] and holds a DESS degree in financial management and taxation.

Distinctions
Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour.

Corporate Director 

Joined the Supervisory Board in 2018, which in July 2018 became the Board of Directors.

Director of Human Resources at the SERIS Group, 1^st French Group in the market in security of people and property.

Ariane Malbat has been Human Resources Director of Seris Security since December 2016.
After initial experience as an HR consultant, then HR Research Manager in the auto-mobile sector, she pursued her career in the cosmetics sector at Bourjois then Chanel Parfums Beauté as Human Resources Manager.
She joined the Stelia Group in 2010 as Human Resources Director and then HR Group Operations. In 2014, she joined the Airbus aeronautic production facility at Saint-Nazaire as DHR.
With a masters in “organisation and human resources”, Ariane MALBAT has solid experience in human resources, from a variety of sector.

Executive Managing Director, LACROIX City

Graduate of ENSEEIHT (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse [Toulouse National Poly-technical Institute]), Vincent Sabot spent many years developing his skills in the telecommunications and technologies sector. Having begun his career with Alcatel where, until 2005, he occupied several management positions in France, Germany and Austria, he spent 10 years at Siemens with General Management functions in the Moroccan subsidiary and then a business lines in Europe. In 2014, he took over the IT services company New Frontier Solutions in Vienna, then joined Sigfox in 2016 as VP France, Germany and Spain.

He joined the LACROIX Group on 12 November 2018, as Executive Managing Director of LACROIX City.

Executive Managing Director, LACROIX Environment

Ronald Vrancken is a graduate of IEFSI (European MBA) and holds a Master of Mechanical Engineering obtained in Belgium.
Previously, he was country-CEO of Siemens Luxemburg. During his career, he held several key positions in the Siemens Group, in the fields of automotive, transformation industry and water, which makes him a highly experienced, international and multicultural manager.

He joined the LACROIX Group on 1st September 2019, as Executive Managing Director of LACROIX Environment.

Executive Managing Director, LACROIX Electronics

Holder of an MBA in Finance from Pace University in New York, he has occupied several Management positions of international importance in the Telecommunications world.
In the 90s, initial experience with portable batteries led him to Japan for the Saft group. He was then charged by Alcatel with the implantation of its Mobile Phones division in China, of which he became President, after having ensured the implementation of businesses from R&D to marketing. During this period, he also concluded a Joint-Venture with TCL.
In 2005 he became President of Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), a group specialised in wireless communication and with a particular presence in Germany, the United States, France, China, Brazil and Australia.

He joined the LACROIX Group on 1 June 2015 as Managing Director of LACROIX Electronics, becoming Executive Managing Director in July 2018.

Executive VP, Strategic Innovation

With a PhD in electronics from Bordeaux University and an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Newcastle, he began his career in 1994 with SOREP, where he led a team of engineers before moving to Singapore. He remained for over 10 years, occupying different positions within STMicroelectronics or at Infineon Technologies.
In 2009, he joined Freescale Semiconductor in Toulouse as International Marketing Director.

He joined LACROIX Group in December 2014 as Director of Strategic Innovation, and became Executive VP, Strategic Innovation, in July 2018.

Executive VP, R&D

Stéphane Henry holds an engineering degree and a post-graduate degree in Electronics (Polytech Nantes), as well as a Master’s degree in Business Administration (IAE de Nantes). He gained a strong track record in R&D development of embedded electronics in an innovation-driven environment at ST Microelectronics, where he was Director of R&D, responsible for new ranges of microprocessors, and later Site Manager.
Previously, during his career at ST Ericsson and NXP, he managed innovative solutions and platforms in the field of mobile communications.

He joined the LACROIX Group on 22 August 2019, as Executive VP, R&D.

Executive VP, Information & Systems

Graduate of the Compiègne University of Technology, including a year in Berlin, he began his career in software publishing for the mass market.
From 1997 to 2012 he held management positions in IT teams for the Bonduelle and Yves Rocher groups in Europe. He also managed missions and projects at international level in Europe, Asia and America, particularly in the digital marketing sector.
In 2012 he joined the LACROIX Electronics team at Saint-Pierre-Montlimart where he contributes to aligning the Information System with business growth objectives and supporting digital initiatives.

He joined LACROIX Group in February 2015, retaining his position of IT Services Director and becoming Executive VP, Information Systems, in July 2018.

Executive VP, Legal and Compliance

Graduate in Political Science and Business law, he has performed various functions in large, international industrial groups like THALES, from management of international law, expertise of mergers-acquisitions in Corporate and management of complex contracts in aeronautic, naval, civil service and military businesses.
In 2013 he joined the legal profession to practice in the different areas of commercial law.

He joined LACROIX Group in February 2017 as Legal Director, and became Executive VP, Legal and Compliance, in July 2018.

Executive VP, Human Resources

Graduate of management sciences at the University of Nantes and in finance and European tax at IAE Poitiers, he has spent his entire career within the LACROIX Group.
After an end-of-studies work placement at LACROIX Signalisation (become the signals centre of LACROIX City) in 1992, he joined the subsidiary DUARIB as management controller. Between 1994 and 2000, he occupied diverse positions at LACROIX Trafic, LACROIX Sofrel and LACROIX Electronics, of which business he became Vice-President in charge of management control and human resources in 2004. He then participated in opening premises in Tunisia and buying the engineering department LACROIX Electronics Solutions and the subsidiary LACROIX Electronics Gmbh in Germany.
He joined LACROIX Group in April 2017 as Director of Human Resources and became Executive VP, Human Resources in July 2018.

Executive VP, Communication

Graduate of Arts et Métiers, The Grande Ecole of Technology, he started his career in 1995 at SEB electrical appliances within the Research and Development department.
After Business Development experience with a plasturgist supplier, he joined LACROIX Signalisation (become the signals centre of LACROIX City) in 1998 as product manager. He took on the Management of Marketing and Communications in 2004, then became Director of International Development in 2008, whilst remaining Communications Manager.

He joined LACROIX Group in May 2016 as Communications Director, and became Executive VP, Communications, in July 2018.