Christian Mulliez, 41, will succeed Michel Somnolet, 62, Vice-President, Managing Director of Administration & Finance of the L'Oréal Group at the end of the year.
Michel Somnolet spent the main part of his career with L'Oréal USA, where, from 1983, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of L'Oréal, appointed him to his current position three years ago. At that time, he asked Michel Somnolet to assist him in the recruitment of the future head of the Group's Administration & Finance.

Lindsay Owen-Jones declared : "Michel Somnolet, over the past three years, has made a tremendous contribution to the development of the Group through his great ability and extensive knowledge of international financial circles. He has also successfully carried out the recruitment of his successor.
We are very grateful to him".

Concerning Christian Mulliez, Lindsay Owen-Jones added : "Christian Mulliez is a person of great quality, with a very comprehensive experience in the financial and administrative domains.
We have known him for a long time. He has spent most of his career with our pharmaceutical company, Synthélabo, which he joined in1984, becoming its Vice President & Financial Director in 1998.
After having made a major contribution to the success of the merger of Synthélabo with Sanofi, Christian Mulliez was appointed Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Sanofi-Synthélabo in October 2000.
I have been in a position to appreciate his ability, knowledge of the major international financial circles, open-mindedness and warmth of character.
I am therefore very pleased to offer Christian Mulliez this new prospect in complete agreement, of course, with Mr. Jean-François Dehecq, President of Sanofi-Synthélabo".

Christian Mulliez will start to work alongside Michel Somnolet in May.