François Desné Appointed Arkema’s Senior Vice President High Performance Polymers and Fluorogases and Member of the Executive Committee

PARIS LA DÉFENSE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

François Desné joins Arkema (Paris:AKE) as Senior Vice President High Performance Polymers and Fluorogases and a member of the Group’s Executive Committee, effective 12 October 2026. He succeeds Laurent Tellier, who was appointed Arkema’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) last July.

With nearly 30 years of international experience in the industry, François Desné has recognized expertise in transforming global industrial businesses, accelerating growth and strategic repositioning of companies toward more sustainable business models. His career has been built within leading companies in materials and chemicals.

François Desné had been Chief Executive Officer of the Steel Wire Solutions (SWS) and Bekaert Bridon Ropes Group (BBRG) divisions, and member of the Executive Committee of the Bekaert Group since 2022.

François Desné holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the Université of Paris-Cité (ex-Paris VII Denis Diderot), France, an MBA from the Wharton School, and a Master’s degree in International Business from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career within Rhodia in China and then in France, holding positions in quality management and application development (silicones). He subsequently joined BASF’s Coatings and Performance Chemicals divisions. Based in Germany and across the Asia-Pacific region (Japan, China, and Singapore), he held various positions in controlling, general management, and Senior Vice President roles across several businesses, including Coatings, Leather & Textile Chemicals, and Water, Oil Field & Mining Solutions. Before joining the Bekaert Group, François Desné served as Chief Executive Officer of the Engineered Foams business and was a member of the Executive Committee at Recticel.

Building on its unique set of expertise in materials science, Arkema offers a portfolio of first-class technologies to address ever-growing demand for new and more sustainable materials. With the ambition to become a world leader in Specialty Materials, the Group is structured into three complementary, resilient and highly innovative segments dedicated to Specialty Materials - Adhesive Solutions, Advanced Materials, and Coating Solutions - accounting for some 85% of Group sales in 2025, and a Primary Materials segment regrouping well-positioned large scale industrials activities. Arkema offers cutting-edge technological solutions to meet the challenges of, among other things, new energies, access to water, recycling, urbanization and mobility, and fosters a permanent dialogue with all its stakeholders. The Group reported sales of around €9.1 billion in 2025 and operates in some 55 countries with 20,700 employees worldwide.

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