Peltier to head Soletanche Freyssinet

Manuel Peltier has been appointed CEO of Soletanche Freyssinet, a subsidiary of French-based Vinci Construction, and Didier Verrouil is now executive vice president.

Peltier succeeds Benoît de Ruffray, who left to become CEO of French contractor Eiffage following the death of Pierre Berger in October 2015.

A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale des Ponts & Chaussées engineering schools, Peltier began his career at Freyssinet in 1995, where he first worked outside France on cable-stayed bridge projects in Hong Kong and the US.

He subsequently headed a number of projects – the Millau bridge, the Dubai metro viaduct and the Sungai Prai viaduct in Malaysia – for the company. He became head of the major projects division in 2008. He was appointed deputy CEO of Freyssinet in July 2012 and CEO in April 2014.

Verrouil, a graduate of the Ecole des Mines engineering school in Nancy, began his career at Schlumberger Wireline, where he worked on projects in Venezuela and Brazil, and then moved to the underground storage department at Sofregaz.

He joined Soletanche in 1982 and headed the tunnel subsidiary, Bessac, between 1994 and 2004.

In 2005, he was appointed business development director with responsibility for the technical subsidiaries at Soletanche Bachy. He became Eurofrance area director and then executive vice president of the group. He was named managing director in 2015.