So far its balance sheet left internally a mixed feeling

Appointed Executive Director Finance group and a member of the Executive Committee of Carrefour March 16 four days after the presentation of the annual results 2008 by Eric Reiss, who he will succeed early may Pierre Bouchut did not a banal profile. He held the same position at the Executive Board of the Schneider group, that he had joined four years ago, the HEC of fifty-three years was, formerly, Deputy Director of the Casino, the only French competitor group listed in quotes from Carrefour. He had the fees, at the time of the resumption in hand of the Saint-Etienne Distributor by its majority shareholder, Jean-Charles Naouri.

This return to the distribution does not therefore fail to raise questions about the exact outline of the future mission of Pierre Bouchut, who did not wish to answer the questions of "echoes". In view of the position he had held in Casino, it could not be limited to the financial aspects. Clearly, its roadmap more few than a true "number two", before, who knows, to become the "number one" His appointment, in any case, provides a little more the scenario described by good connoisseurs of the group that Lars Olofsson, the new Director General of the second global distribution group, would, at the age of fifty-six, the insurance term to take the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board to make way for a genuine pro of the "retail".

The grocer virus

Because, for a true journey of human figures he completed his training at HEC by a master's degree in applied economics Pierre Bouchut has nevertheless caught in Casino virus of the grocer. Originally from Dunières, near Saint-Etienne, this child of the country he has even shared the former Senator-Mayor of the city, Michel Thiollière, on the banks of the primary school spent fifteen years in the House of the rue de La Montat in Saint-Etienne, after a journey more in agreement with discreet financial image he likes to return. First, from 1979 to 1986, as a Director in the Department of multinational corporations from Citibank, then at Bankers Trust SA from 1986 to 1987 and, finally, as an engineer in McKinsey from 1988 to 1990. And if, in the tandem that he trained with Christian Couvreux head of Casino, this last then Vice President of the Board of Directors was the operational, Pierre Bouchut "like distribution," reflects a close.

So far, its balance sheet left internally a mixed feeling. "Very smart, very fine, excellent negotiator, remarkable on the mergers and acquisitions," recalls a former collaborator, it remains to some as "the man of the debt," which will cost the group plan of transfers of assets from 2 to 3 billion euros. Others consider that it had failed, at the time, in his function of Director-General to integrate dimensions managerial and operational. There is no doubt that Bernard Arnault (owner of the "voices"), as the first shareholder of crossroads with Colony, will ensure before eventually adouber it at the head of the first French Distributor.