Jacques Saadé appoints son
CEO of CMA CGM shipping

Rodolph Saadé groomed to take over group

Jacques Saadé announced, on this 80th birthday, that he is to step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CMA CGM Group conglomerate in favor of his eldest son Rodolphe. Jacques Saadé remains Chairman of the Board of Directors.

CMA CGM is the world's third largest containership operator, with a fleet of 454 ships (109 owned and 345 chartered) with a total capacity of 2.1 million TEU fleet, according to Alphaliner statistics. The company was founded in Marseilles by the Saadé family – after fleeing Beirut in 1978 during the civil war, starting a line with Beirut and Lattakieh.

Jacques Saadé said: “Rodolphe has proven himself over the years, and he has my deepest trust as CEO. I know that, with Rodolphe as CEO, with Farid Salem and Tanya Saadé Zeenny, our Executive Officers, and all our teams around the world, the Group will continue its development with the same commitment and passion.”

Rodolphe Saadé was Executive Officer. After he founded a company selling water coolers in the Middle East, he joined the Group in 1994 in the U.S. He then worked in Hong Kong before coming back to Marseilles to head a shipping line linking Northern China to Japan.

From 1997 to 2000, Rodolphe Saadé successively headed different shipping lines.

In 2008, when a cruise yacht owned by Le Ponant, a CMA CGM subsidiary at that time, was hijacked, he was the one who led negotiations with the pirates, which ended with the release of the hostages.

In 2009, he took over responsibility of the Group's financial restructuring program. In 2015 and 2016, he successfully led the voluntary general cash offer for Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a Singapore based container shipping company.

In April of last year, he conducted the talks that led to the signature of the largest operational agreement of the sector with three Asian competitors.