Human Resources

27 years with Lesaffre?
When I joined after graduating, I never thought I’d stay so long in one company. However, my tenure can be explained by the different opportunities to develop within the Group, the company culture that matches my own values, the Group’s international dimension that ensures exciting challenges, the short decision-making process that enables you to make things happen quickly and a network of colleagues who have become friends.

Quality, Purchasing, Logistics, Production, Finance, … Can you tell us more about your career?
I was taken on to put the quality system in place, and then I was entrusted with the management of the laboratory in the Marcq en Baroeul factory.
Then, for ten years, I actually worked on the project devised to build the quality system within the yeast sector. (A bold project at the beginning of the 1980s!). This work involved listening to our customers and coordinating within the company. At this point, I changed departments moving to the purchasing/logistics. /information systems side of things. This position was both operational and managerial and also involved a coordinating role within the Group.
I then took charge of the Industrial Division in the Central European area, which gave me the opportunity to work with employees coming from different cultures.
Then, I became fully involved in the profitability of the subsidiaries, by steering a project for two years aiming to enhance the Group’s performance levels.
Since June 2007, I’ve been coordinating a project the objective of which is to redefine the rules governing the Group’s finance and business control with a view to harmonising them, and gradually roll them out to the subsidiaries.

A genuine professional and personal investment!
Each change of job enables you to improve your understanding of the rules that govern the Group’s way of operating and therefore its own performance.
The fact of working in turn with people with different jobs, from different countries and with different cultures necessitate a certain amount of flexibility. This also requires a considerable personal investment but it’s so rewarding!
 

Can you tell us about your career with Lesaffre ?
I joined the Group in 1993 as a research coordinator tasked with creating a laboratory for studying enzymes in the Group’s R&D Department. Working on enzymes brought me into contact with a wide variety of applications  : bread-making, animal feed and even beyond food applications.
I then sought to broaden my scope by focusing on different production aspects. I developed contacts in this respect but it took two years before I was offered the job of Production Manager in the Major Modern Malt Factories in Marquette.
At the end of the activity of this facility, I wanted to go to the Industrial Department where I was able to take up a position corresponding to my expectations. As Assignment Coordinator, I devote a third of my time to technical assistance for the factories while the rest of my time goes towards providing technical support for the nutrition and health division.

Why did you want to join the Industrial Department?
The experience of production in malt factories proved to be very intense and enriching. Nevertheless, at the end of this assignment I was looking for a position interfacing between the two divisions I had experienced: research and production. The job I am now doing is absolutely perfect!
My career ambitions have changed over time. They have become sharper focused thanks to my different experiences. When I joined the Group I didn’t really have a “career plan”.

Changing contexts in such a radical manner : a challenge ?
I was really well helped each time I changed. In the malt factories, the team was small but worked well together, and I had sufficient time working with the outgoing manager to learn the ropes.
When I arrived at the Industrial Department, I had a factory training period of three months which put me straight into the world of yeast production. This was enough to get me up and running. Since then, I’ve always been able to count on the Group’s experts.
 

Baker ? Salesman? What exactly do you do ?
It’s true that I’ve got a two-fold role. I graduated in economics and international trade. However, my career started in the baking field which I learnt on the job! Before joining the Lesaffre Group, I worked in various jobs in The Ukraine for a French company selling baking equipment : baker, Production Manager, and lastly Sales Manager. That’s how I met people from Lesaffre which led me to join the Group!
With Lesaffre, I’ve has various responsibilities. After an assignment as a technical salesman in The Ukraine, I joined the Baking Center in Marcq en Baroeul to provide technical support for bakers in the sub-Sahara area of Africa. Since 2008, I’ve been working in Export Sales in the same region. My different skills increase my credibility as a salesman when working with baking customers.

An unusual career path!
It was indeed difficult to predict such a career path given the fact that the changes in direction and nature of the roles have been so radically different.
My career reflects the choices I’ve made and risks I’ve taken: going to live in The Ukraine and then leaving this country, starting work as a baker, a trade for which I had no training, etc. I’ve built my career and my life knowing what I wanted to do at each stage. Each step has counted and has enabled me to move on to the next one. The quality of my work, my determination and the opportunities that have presented themselves have all enabled me to get to where I am today.