BERTRAND COLLOMB

Bertrand Collomb (1942) is Vice Chairman of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and a director and Honorary Chairman of Lafarge. He presently serves as chairman of IHEST (Institute for advanced studies in Science and
Technology) and the Strategic Committee of ParisTech (a federation of elite French engineering schools).

After graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines in Paris, Collomb started a government career, working for the Industry Ministry’s Regional Department in Lorraine (1967-1970). During this period, he also obtained a law degree and taught economics at the Ecole des Mines de Nancy. In 1970, he went to the United States, where he obtained a PhD in Management at the University of Texas.

Returning to France, he held various posts in the Industry Ministry and in ministerial teams of staff. Alongside this, he also taught courses in management theory at ESSEC.

Strongly influenced by his research on management during his PhD studies in the United States, he founded and, from 1971 to 1973, managed the Centre for Management Research at the Ecole Polytechnique.

He joined Lafarge in 1975, as Regional Director for the West of France, based in Nantes. After occupying various positions within the group, he was appointed CEO of Lafarge Corporation, the group’s North American subsidiary (1985-1988), before becoming chairman and CEO of the group in August 1989, at the age of 47. In 2003, he became Chairman of the Lafarge Board of Directors, remaining in this position until May 2007, when Bruno Lafont was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group.

As a committed player, Collomb has contributed for many years to initiatives involving the corporate world in the vital issues of modern citizenship. From 1992 to 2000, he presided over the creation of ANVIE (French association for the inter-disciplinary valorisation of social sciences in companies), and, at the same time, was Vice-President of the French association "Entreprises pour l’Environnement".

From 1996 to 2001, he chaired the "Institut de l’Entreprise" and, in 2000, was co-Chairman of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, an organization bringing together European and American companies to facilitate trade.

Chairman of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) in 2004 and 2005, he pushed for the creation of the Cement Sustainability Initiative, the world’s first sectorial initiative in support of sustainable development and against climate change.

A long-standing participant at Davos, Collomb has been a member of the European round table of Industrialists since 1989 and has been Chairman of IFRI (the French Institute of International Relations) since 2004.

Collomb served as chairman of AFEP (Association Française des Entreprises Privées), which brings together the 80 biggest French groups, from 2002 to 2007. In 2001, he was elected as a member of the "Institut de France" (Academy of Moral and Political Science).

Collomb is also a director of Total, DuPont and ATCO.