People in Focus: Alexis Wattinne, Bonduelle

Alexis Wattinne  joined the Bonduelle Group in 2007. Bonduelle  is a French company producing processed vegetables – canned, frozen, processed and prepared. After holding the position of Group Finance & Treasury Officer for 10 years, he moved to the position of CFO & Business Development Director at Bonduelle Prospective & Development, a subsidiary in charge of the export market, Central Europe, and new channels, new territories and new distribution models. In addition to this position, he is responsible  for Investor Relations and Financial Communication for the Group, which was Highly Commended  for Corporate Finance and Funding in TMI’s 2018 Corporate Awards (see page 18 for more details). 

He graduated from SKEMA business school with a degree in Capital Markets Finance and Corporate Finance. After his first job as a junior treasurer from 1995 to 2002 with  Leroy Merlin (part of the Adeo Group), a family-owned French DIY company, he moved into banking  and was appointed Head of Proprietary Trading and then Head of Finance  at  Caisse d’Epargne de Flandres, a subsidiary of BPCE Natixis Group, a position he held from 2002 to 2007. 

Alexis has been jointly in charge of the Northern Branch of Association Française des Trésoriers d’Entreprise (AFTE), the French treasury association, for more than 10 years. AFTE is one of the largest and most active members of  the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), and has  some 1,500 members in all; the Northern Branch represents about 100 treasurers and  was the first ‘local’ branch  to be established outside  the Paris area.  Alexis, together with three colleagues, is in charge of the monthly meetings  of the branch which cover a wide range of treasury topics,  as well as a regular series of local workshops.  They also hold an annual ‘Prestige Dinner’ with top-level speakers, attended by up to 150 people.