Page 43 - Book_Artelia_10years

Benoît Clocheret, Jacques Gaillard, Alain Bentéjac
A group 100% owned by its employees,

guaranteeing its independence

In 2010, just over 70% of Artelia’s share capital was held by the two founding Chairmen and around thirty
executive managers. The remaining 30% was distributed between the managers and employees via an
employee shareholding scheme (FCPE - Fonds Commun de Placement d’Entreprise). Around 1200 employees
thus became shareholders in the company. Over the following ten years, with the exception of a temporary
minority stake held by CM-CIC Investissement, this employee shareholding model continued, providing the
Group with total freedom in the direction it chose to take and the commitments it chose to enter into.
Alain Bentéjac and Jacques Gaillard were co-Chairmen of Artelia until 2019, whilst organising their
succession. In January 2014, they appointed Benoît Clocheret as CEO of the Group, in the belief that his
experience in the engineering sector and his international knowledge would contribute to accelerating
Artelia’s growth. In parallel, they began a process of transferring their shares, confirming their common desire
to entrust the future of the Group to its directors, managers and employees. Governance was re-organised in
September 2019, with Benoît Clocheret remaining CEO and Claude Imauven becoming Chairman of the Board
of Directors, whilst the two former Chairmen took seats on the Board of Directors as co-founders of Artelia.
This operation reinforced the independence and entrepreneurial spirit of the Group, two strong markers
of its identity, by forging the creation of a benchmark bloc of shareholders and managers and encouraging
younger employees to acquire shares of their own. Today, with nearly 6000 employees of whom 44% are
shareholders either directly or indirectly through an employee shareholding plan, Artelia is one of the largest
French companies based on this model. Enshrined in the Group’s CSR policy, the objective is to consolidate
this commitment by increasing the proportion of employee shareholders to 50% by 2025, with half of them
under 40 years of age.

Frédéric Abbadie
Chief Financial Officer

40 I ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE I 41