Arrived at the controls in January, he gives way to Nourdine Bihmane, new general manager.
The French computer giant Atos, in the midst of a crisis of stock market confidence, announced on Wednesday the departure of its managing director Rodolphe Belmer, replaced by a new leading trio. Rodolphe Belmer, who arrived at the helm in January, gives way to Nourdine Bihmane, new CEO, assisted by Diane Galbe, Deputy CEO, and Philippe Oliva, Deputy CEO, who had already been designated as the pivots of the split plan. ‘Atos into two entities announced in mid-June, the group said in a statement.
Read alsoSplit, governance crisis: Atos’ descent into hell
Rodolphe Belmer took office in January with the mission to turn around the company, which had become a giant under the leadership of Thierry Breton through successive acquisitions. Its turnover had thus fallen by 2.4% in 2021. To everyone’s surprise, Rodolphe Belmer announced on June 14 a plan to split the group between its historical outsourcing activities (management of IT equipment for the third-party account) in decline, and its growing activities such as cyber-security, high-performance servers and super-computers, and business digitization consulting.
Rodolphe Belmer had announced that he would not be directing this reorganization himself and had indicated that he would leave “no later than the end of September“. The announcement of the split plan was preceded by rumors of disagreements between Rodolphe Belmer and the chairman of the board of directors of Atos, Bertrand Meunier. The latter is highly criticized by some small shareholders of the group, who seek to obtain his departure.
At 11.06 euros at the close of the Paris Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the Atos share price (111,000 employees) is close to its historic lows, after a slow slide that began in early 2021, when the share was worth nearly 75 euros.
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