2.7 Other governing bodies

2.7.1 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive Committee, chaired by Arnaud Lagardère as Managing Partner of Lagardère SCA, holds meetings with the heads of the Group’s major central management functions.
Two of them (Pierre Leroy and Thierry Funck-Brentano), along with Arnaud Lagardère, are Managing Partners and executive corporate officers.
The role of the Executive Committee is to assist the Managing Partners in performing their duties.
It enlists the help of any of the Group’s senior executives whom it considers to be of use in the accomplishment of its duties.

The members of the Executive Committee are as follows

Managing Partners:

  • Arnaud Lagardère,
    General and Managing Partner, Chairman of the Management Board
  • Pierre Leroy,
    Co-Managing Partner, Secretary General 
  • Thierry Funck-Brentano,
    Co-Managing Partner, Chief Human Relations, Communications and Sustainable Development Officer

Ramzi Khiroun,
Spokesman for the Managing Partners, Chief External Relations Officer

Sophie Stabile,
Group Chief Financial Officer

2.7.2 MANAGEMENT BOARD

This collective decision-making body was created in 2020 in connection with the Group’s new strategic roadmap, the coordination of which requires the active involvement of the division senior executives.
The Management Board provides a platform for sharing information and coordinating the actions defined by the Company’s Managing Partners and includes members of the Executive Committee along with the respective Chief Executive Officers of Lagardère Publishing and Lagardère Travel Retail.

2.7.3 ENLARGED COMMITTEE

The Managing Partners are also supported by the Enlarged Committee, which is made up of the members of the Management Board plus the Chief Executive Officer of Lagardère News, the Deputy Secretary General and the Governance Director and CSR Director of Lagardère SCA. The Enlarged Committee meets every month.

Items appearing in the Annual Financial Report are cross-referenced with the following symbol AFR

2.7.4 EXECUTIVE BODY GENDER BALANCE POLICY

At 31 December 2020, the Lagardère group had strong female representation, with women making up 65% of its workforce and 57% of its managerial-grade employees.
In 2020, the Group Executive Committee welcomed its first woman member, the Chief Financial Officer, bringing the percentage of woman members to 20%, while the percentage of woman members on the Enlarged Committee is 40%. Women make up 60% of Lagardère Publishing’s International Executive Committee, 18% of Lagardère Travel Retail’s Management Committee, and 40% of Lagardère News’ Executive Committee.
Having a balanced representation of men and women in senior management positions is one of the priority commitments of the Group’s CSR policy. Lagardère has signed up to the UN’s Women Empowerment Principles and to the StOpE initiative which aims to combat casual sexism in the workplace.
In line with this commitment and with the recommendations of the Afep-Medef Corporate Governance Code to which Lagardère SCA adheres, the Managing Partners have adopted a diversity policy for the Group’s managing bodies, which is regularly reviewed by the Supervisory Board and its Appointments, Remuneration and CSR Committee.
The Managing Partners set a target of women making up 45% of the Group’s executives in 2021, out of around 600 executives in the Group at the end of 2020. This target has been exceeded, with women representing 51% of the Group’s executives at 31 December 2020.
To make further progress in this strategic issue, the Managing Partners have decided to focus their efforts going forward on a smaller scope that is more representative of the Group’s top management. Top management corresponds to (i) members of the Enlarged Executive Committee and their direct reports, (ii) members of the Executive Committees and Management Committees of Lagardère Publishing, Lagardère Travel Retail and Lagardère News, and of subsidiaries with more than 500 employees, and (iii) senior executives of entities with less than 500 employees based within and outside France.
Covering some 300 people at end-2020, or around 1% of the Group’s total workforce, this scope was chosen taking into account its specific characteristics, notably its significant decentralised structure and international exposure.
Within this new scope, where 42% of people were women in 2020, the Managing Partners set a target of women making up 45% of the population by the end of 2024. This will be achieved through several action plans, including:

  • looking for an appropriate gender balance when recruiting for managerial positions, up to the short-list phase;
  • preparing succession plans as part of talent reviews with a greater emphasis on gender balance;
  • rolling out measures via the “LL by Lagardère” network, in particular the internal mentoring program;
  • incorporating gender balance targets within the CSR criteria used to determine components of short- and long-term variable remuneration for the Group’s Managing Partners and senior executives;
  • providing training and awareness-raising on diversity issues and on bias caused by stereotypes for all those involved in the recruitment process;
  • raising the awareness of all employees to casual sexism in the workplace;
  • regularly reporting on diversity.

Under the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officers of Lagardère Publishing, Lagardère Travel Retail and Lagardère News, each year steering committees comprising Human Resources and CSR Directors review the implementation of these action plans along with the changes brought about. The Human Resources Committee is responsible for supervising action plans for the full Lagardère group scope, under the authority of the Chief Human Relations, Communications and CSR Officer and Co-Managing Partner.