Renault brings chief financial officers on board following Desmarest’s departure

Laurence Frost

PARIS (Reuters) – Renault will hire insurance chief Thierry Derez to its board, sources told Reuters, replacing senior executive Thierry Desmarest, who resigned days before a key succession planning meeting for carmaker CEO Carlos Ghosn.

Sources say another chief financial officer, former Credit Suisse France CEO Pierre Fleuriot, will be appointed to succeed retiring chief executive Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere.

Renault declined to comment on the appointment but confirmed the departure of the former Total CEO Desmarest two days after it was announced by Reuters and Les Echos.

Desmarest will step down after a Feb. 15 meeting during which Ghosn asks executives to support the promotion of competition chief Thierry Bollore to chief operating officer.

The French government, which has been pressing Ghosn to hire a replacement who could one day replace him at the head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, said on Monday it supported Bollore’s nomination.

Renault’s largest shareholder is the French state, with 15 percent of the shares.

Desmarest, 72, shared concerns with other independent directors about the way the hiring process was handled and competing candidates were eliminated, sources said.

However, his decision to resign was “based on age and personal reasons,” Renault said on Tuesday.

“I fully support Renault’s strategy and management,” the company’s statement also quoted Desmarest as saying.

Renault and the government have sought to avoid a repeat of the 2015 conflict, in which France raised its stake in the company to change shareholders’ votes and secure double voting rights.

Derez, a 59-year-old lawyer by profession, has been president and CEO of the Covea insurance group since 2008.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Richard Lough and Kirsten Donovan)