Gilles Schnepp, Legrand’s Chairman, has offered to the Board of Directors, which accepted it, to make a new change in the Group’s governance.

Following a first step taken in February 2018 towards a governance meeting the highest standards and best practices in place – on one hand, by permanently separating the offices of Chairman and of Chief Executive Officer and on the other hand by appointing Benoît Coquart as Chief Executive Officer – a further step is announced today. This will be effective from July 1, 2020 and would consist in the appointment of Angeles Garcia-Poveda, an independent director since 2012, as Chairman of Legrand’s Board of Directors¹. Angeles Garcia-Poveda is currently Lead Director and chairs the Compensation Committee, the Nominating and Governance Committee and is also a member of the Strategy and Social Responsibility Committee.

Following this change, Michel Landel would be appointed as Lead Director and Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee, and Annalisa Loustau Elia would chair the Compensation Committee. These appointments would also be effective from July 1, 2020. Besides, Benoît Coquart, CEO would be appointed as a Director².

Angeles Garcia-Poveda, a 49-year old Spanish national, worked as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for 14 years, before taking charge of its global recruiting. In 2008, she joined Spencer Stuart where she was Managing Director for France and then for the EMEA region, and member of the global Executive Committee. She currently sits on the group’s Supervisory Board. Throughout her career, Angeles Garcia-Poveda has been attached to carry out ambitious development projects both in France and abroad, while focusing on governance issues, talent management, mergers & acquisitions and the deployment of operational strategy.

Angeles Garcia-Poveda has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing Legrand and of its development strategy that aims to create value sustainably for all its stakeholders. Since 2012, she has played a key role in Legrand’s governance, in particular by promoting best practices to ensure Legrand remains a governance benchmark among CAC 40 Index.

Gilles Schnepp commented: “This change marks the culmination of a succession process prepared for and conducted with the full support of the entire Board of Directors. I am proud to see the company with an exemplary and professional dissociated governance framework to meet Legrand’s interests. I am also happy to remain a director and shareholder to continue to accompany Legrand’s profitable and sustainable development.”

Angeles Garcia-Poveda stated: “I’m proud of the trust that Legrand’s Board and Gilles Schnepp have placed in me and enthusiastic about the idea of continuing to support this remarkable company. I will make every effort to fulfill my duties as Chairwoman of the Board and thus watch over the interests of Legrand and its stakeholders.”

Biographies

Biography of Gilles Schnepp

Gilles Schnepp, 61, is a graduate of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) business school. He began his career at Merrill Lynch France where he became Vice-Chairman. He then joined Legrand in 1989 as Deputy Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed as Company Secretary of Legrand France in 1993, Chief Financial Officer in 1996 and Chief Operating Officer in 2000. Gilles Schnepp has been a Director of Legrand since 2002 and Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2006. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2006 until February 7, 2018. Gilles Schnepp has also been Chairman of the French Federation of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Industries (FIEEC) since July 2013, Director of Saint-Gobain since 2009, Vice-Chairman and Senior Independent Member of Peugeot since 2019, a member of the Executive Board of Medef and Chairman of the Commission for the Ecological and Economic Transition since 2018.

Biography of Angeles Garcia-Poveda

Angeles Garcia-Poveda, 49, is a graduate of ICADE business school in Madrid and attended the Business Case Study Program at Harvard University. Before joining Spencer Stuart in 2008, she worked for fourteen years with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Madrid and Paris as a strategy consultant, before taking on various different recruiting missions at local and international levels. As head of global recruitment at BCG, she worked on cross-border recruitment projects. After managing the Spencer Stuart France office for five years, Angeles Garcia-Poveda served as head of the EMEA region for three years and was a member of the global Executive Committee. She is currently a Director of Spencer Stuart at global level. As Partner, she runs the Governance practice in France and thus helps international clients on executive and board recruitment and assessment projects, and on governance issues advisory.

Biography of Michel Landel

Michel Landel, 68, is a graduate of the European Business School. He began his career in 1977 working for Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1980, he joined the Poliet group as a plant manager. In 1984, he joined Sodexo Group as Operations Manager for Africa. He was appointed as Sodexo’s CEO in North America in 1989. In 2000, he became Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee and then in 2003 the Deputy Chief Executive Officer. From 2005 to January 2018, he was Sodexo’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee. He was appointed as a director of Sodexo in 2007. In addition, Michel Landel is Lead Director and Chairman of Danone’s Governance Committee, as well as Chairman of the Louis Delhaize group’s Board of Directors.

Biography of Annalisa Loustau Elia

Annalisa Loustau Elia, 54, graduated in law from La Sapienza University in Rome. She worked at Cartier in Paris and Geneva for four years, then spent two years with L’Oréal (Luxury goods division) in Paris and 13 years with Procter & Gamble in Geneva, as well as with its subsidiaries in Paris and Rome. Her rich professional background has given her substantial marketing and product development experience in the luxury goods, retail and mass markets sectors. Annalisa Loustau Elia has been Head of Marketing and a member of Printemps’ Executive Committee since 2008. She has also been a director of Campari since 2016 and member of the Supervisory board of Roche Bobois since 2018.

Biography of Benoît Coquart

Benoît Coquart, 46, is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, political science institute, in Paris and of the ESSEC business school. He joined Legrand immediately after completing his studies in 1997 to take in charge the Group’s activities in South Korea. Pursuing his career within the Group, he held several positions, including Head of Investor Relations, Vice-President of Corporate Development (M&A), Executive Vice-President Strategy and Development and Executive Vice-President France. Benoît Coquart was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Legrand on February 8, 2018. He has also served as Chairman of Ignes, the French digital, energy and safety & security engineering industry association, since 2019.

¹ Subject to her reappointment as a Director at the Shareholders’ meeting on May 27, 2020.
² Subject to approval at the Shareholders’ meeting of May 27, 2020.