Total announces key executive appointments

Total SA, a leading international oil and gas company based in Paris, France, announced the appointment of Philippe Sauquet, currently president, Refining & Chemicals and member of Total’s Executive Committee, as president of the newly created Gas, Renewables & Power branch. He was also named executive vice president, Strategy & Innovation.

Sauquet began his career in 1981 as a civil engineer at the French Ministry of Infrastructure. He subsequently worked at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. He joined chemical company Orkem in 1988 as vice president, Strategy before being appointed senior vice president, Acrylics Sales & Marketing. He moved to Total in 1990 as vice president, Anti-Corrosion Paints and was subsequently named vice president, Chemicals Strategy. In 1997, Sauquet transferred to the Gas & Power Division, where he was successively vice president, Americas; vice president, International; senior vice president, Strategy & Renewables; senior vice president, Trading & Marketing, Gas & Power, based in London. He was appointed president of Gas & Power on July 1, 2012, in which capacity he also sat on the Group Management Committee. On Oct. 29, 2014, Sauquet was named president, Refining & Chemicals and joined Total’s Executive Committee. On April 15, 2016, he was also appointed interim president, New Energies.

Sauquet is a graduate of France’s École Polytechnique and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées engineering schools and of the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.

Bernard Pinatel is joining Total and has been appointed as president, Refining & Chemicals and a member of Total’s Executive Committee. Pinatel began his career at Booz Allen & Hamilton, later joining Total in 1991, where he held a number of operational positions in plants and at the headquarters of affiliates, including Hutchinson and Coates Lorilleux. He subsequently served as chief executive officer France and chief executive officer Europe for Bostik from 2000 to 2006, before serving as chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Valley from 2006 to 2009. He was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of Bostik in 2010. While at Total, he was a member of the group’s Management Committee from 2011 and of the Refining & Chemicals Management Committee from 2012 to 2014. In February 2015, when Bostik was acquired by Arkema, Pinatel became a member of that company’s Executive Committee, in charge of the High Performance Materials business segment.

Pinatel is a graduate of École Polytechnique and Institut d’Études Politiques (IEP) in Paris, and holds an MBA from the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD). He is also a statistician economist (École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique – ENSAE).

Namita Shah has been appointed executive vice president, People & Social Responsibility, and a member of Total’s Executive Committee. Shah is directly in charge of the Human Resources division and will also oversee the newly created Total Global Services.

Shah began her career as an associate attorney at Shearman & Sterling, a New York law firm, where she spent eight years providing advice and supervising transactions including those involving financing of pipeline and power plant companies. She joined Total SA in 2002 as a legal counsel in the E&P mergers and acquisitions team. In 2008 she joined the New Business team, where she was responsible for business development in Australia and Malaysia. She held this position until 2011, when she moved to Yangon as general manager, Total E&P Myanmar. On July 1, 2014, she was appointed senior vice president, Corporate Affairs, Exploration & Production.

Shah is a graduate of Delhi University, New Delhi and has a postgraduate degree in Law from the New York University School of Law, USA.

Jean Jacques Guilbaud has been appointed senior advisor to the chairman and chief executive officer.

The above appointments are effective Sept. 1, 2016, and part of the deployment of the One Total company project, a new organization which is being implemented at Total on Sept. 1.

Commenting on the appointments to Total’s Executive Committee, Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive officer, said: “I am delighted to welcome Namita Shah and Bernard Pinatel to the Executive Committee. After the recent appointment of Momar Nguer as president, Marketing & Services, we have a renewed Executive Committee that, with its diversified backgrounds and experiences, will lead the group in achieving the ambition set out in our One Total company project. With Namita Shah, the Human Resources function will be represented on the Executive Committee, demonstrating the importance we put on developing the talents to secure our future. After successfully leading the integration of Bostik at Arkema, Bernard Pinatel is returning to the group he knows well, this time at the helm of Refining & Chemicals, where he was a member of the Management Committee from 2012 to 2014. Philippe Sauquet, who has managed Refining & Chemicals with determination since 2014, will steer the new Gas, Renewables & Power business and spearhead our ambition in these areas, while also leading Strategy & Innovation at the corporate level. Lastly, I would like to thank Jean Jacques Guilbaud for the role he has played on the Executive Committee as chief administrative officer since 2007 and for his contribution to implementing the One Total company project.”

Effective September 1, 2016, Total’s Executive Committee will be comprised of:

  • Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
  • Arnaud Breuillac, President, Exploration & Production
  • Patrick de La Chevardière, Chief Financial Officer
  • Momar Nguer, President, Marketing & Services
  • Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals
  • Philippe Sauquet, President, Gas, Renewables & Power and Executive Vice President, Strategy & Innovation
  • Namita Shah, Executive Vice President, People & Social Responsibility