Rodolphe Saadé

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CMA CGM Group

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group since November 2017 was born in Lebanon in 1970.

Rodolphe Saadé has extensive international experience. After graduating from Concordia University in Montreal with a degree in business and marketing, he founded a water dispenser company before joining the CMA CGM Group headed by his father Jacques Saadé, in 1994.

From 1997 to 2000, he successfully managed various shipping lines before taking over the transatlantic and transpacific lines.

Having been appointed Vice Chairman and member of the Board of Directors of CMA CGM in 2010, that very year, he supervised the financial restructuring of the Group.

In 2015, Rodolphe Saadé conducted an all-cash voluntary conditional public tender offer for Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a Singapore-based container shipping company, and was then named President of NOL’s Board of Directors in 2016. That same year, he led the negotiations that resulted in the signature of OCEAN ALLIANCE, a strategic operating agreement with Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line and OOCL.

Since his appointment as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Group in 2017, Rodolphe Saadé has implemented an ambitious new strategy particularly aiming to carry out a digital transformation, and to combine a simplified and optimised transport offer with maritime, port and logistics services.

In April 2019, he successfully carried out a public tender offer for CEVA Logistics.

In February 2021, he announced the incorporation of Air Cargo, the Group’s new airfreight division. CMA CGM purchases six cargo planes and orders another six and establishes a strategic partnership with AirFrance KLM.

In 2022, Mr Rodolphe Saadé led several acquisitions:

  • Ingram CLS to strengthen the Group’s position in e-commerce logistics.
  • GEFCO to make CMA CGM a leading player in automotive logistics.
  • Colis Privé to expand the Group’s logistics solutions for “last mile” delivery.

Aware of the role and responsibility of companies in society, Rodolphe Saadé implements a committed CSR and sustainable development strategy: decision to stop using the Northern route from 2019; the acquisition of new LNG-powered vessels; the end of plastic waste transport in 2022; and the creation of an Energies Fund the same year in order to support the Group’s clean energy transition and achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In 2022, he launched TANGRAM, the Group’s innovation and training facility dedicated to the shipping and logistics solutions of the future.

Lastly, since it was first established in 2005, the CMA CGM Group’s Foundation has supported more than 350 local, national and international projects aimed at delivering emergency humanitarian relief, better education and equal opportunities.