GDF Suez SA promoted chief financial officer Isabelle Kocher to deputy chief executive officer, putting her on track to succeed Gerard Mestrallet at the helm of Europe’s biggest natural gas pipeline operator and ending an internal leadership battle.
The appointment seeks to “serenely” prepare the succession of Mestrallet, GDF Suez said in a statement following a board meeting yesterday. Mestrallet’s tenure as chairman and CEO is set to expire in 2016. Kocher, 47, was also made a director and named chief operating officer.
She will replace Jean-Francois Cirelli and will oversee the utility’s five businesses and three divisions, GDF Suez said.
The former French gas monopoly has been in the throes of succession uncertainty since July when the French press first reported maneuvering by Mestrallet to favor Kocher over Cirelli. An outside consultant was brought in to study candidates for the number-two position and the board’s nominations and compensation committee earlier this month approved the recommendation of Kocher, people familiar with the process have said.
Mestrallet, 65, built the French gas and nuclear-energy supplier through acquisitions and global development of dams and power plants.
Mother of five children, Kocher joined Suez SA in 2002 before the merger with Gaz de France SA, where she had been head of strategy. She held several management positions at waste and water utility Suez Environnement, according to the statement. A physics graduate and engineer, Kocher has been CFO at GDF Suez since 2011.
GDF Suez is not alone among France’s top energy companies in facing leadership upheaval. French President Francois Hollande last week decided to replace Electricite de France SA CEO Henri Proglio with Jean-Bernard Levy, who heads Thales SA. Total SA CEO Christophe de Margerie died in a plane crash in Moscow this week.
The French government is the biggest shareholder in GDF Suez with a 33.6 percent stake and has four directors on the board as well as a so-called golden share that gives it veto power.