New chairman at Saint Gobain

Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, chief executive of Saint Gobain since June 2007 has been appointed as Chairman. He will also continue to serve as CEO.

A graduate of the Institute of Economic and Commercial Sciences (ESSEC) Business School and of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), Mr de Chalendar was also a former senior civil servant before joining Saint Gobain in 1989 as vice-president of corporate planning.

He held the positions of director of abrasives for Europe between 1992 and 1996, director of abrasives worldwide (1996 - 2000) and general delegate for the UK and Ireland between 2000 and 2002 before being appointed senior vice president in charge of the building distribution sector in 2003.

Elected to the Saint Gobain board in 2006, Mr de Chalendar is also a director of Veolia Environment.