New Keolis group executive chairman sacked after just four months

Patrick Jeantet, executive chairman of the Keolis Group, who was appointed last November and only took office on 1 February 2020, has been sacked by the group’s Supervisory Board, citing “significant strategic differences”.

The role of the Supervisory Board is to oversee the Executive Board, which is composed of a single member (Patrick Jeantet), and to adjudicate on strategic decisions.

Keolis’ two shareholders, SNCF and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), asked the chairman of the Supervisory Board to convene an exceptional meeting on Tuesday 2 June 2020 to deliberate on the dismissal of Patrick Jeantet.

The Supervisory Board duly met and recorded the termination of all of Patrick Jeantet’s mandates. A recruitment process will now be initiated to replace him.

Meanwhile, the management of Keolis will be entrusted to a specially constituted Executive Board, whose interim chairman will be group finance and legal director Kathleen Wantz-O’Rourke.

Other members of the new interim Executive Board will be

• Frédéric Baverez, group executive director France and CEO of group company Effia
• Bruno Danet, group executive director of human resources and organisation
• Bernard Tabary, group executive director – international

The two shareholders, SNCF and CDPQ, have reaffirmed their commitment to the Keolis Group, its customers and employees.

In the UK, Keolis has been involved in the rail and tram market since 1996. Today, it employs 13,000 people across its franchises and concessions, which include:

• Govia – in partnership with the Go-Ahead Group;
• Southeastern – a joint venture with Go-Ahead;
• GTR – Govia Thameslink Railway is the UK’s largest franchise;
• KeolisAmey Docklands – with Amey, operators of the Docklands Light Railway since 2014;
• Nottingham Tram – a four-way partnership between Keolis, Trent Barton, Alstom and Vinci;
• KeolisAmey Metrolink – a joint venture between Keolis and Amey that was awarded the franchise, in 2017, to operate and maintain Manchester’s Metrolink for up to 10 years;
• Transport for Wales (TfW) Rail Services – KeolisAmey was awarded the Wales and Borders franchise for 15 years in May 2018.