Christophe Chenut

Christophe Chenut
Born	(1962-10-02) 2 October 1962 Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Alma mater	Paris Dauphine University HEC Paris
Occupation	CEO

Christophe Chenut, born October 2, 1962, in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), is a French business leader. He was general manager of the French newspaper L'Opinion from its launch in May 2013 until June 2015 before taking over as general manager of the Comptoir des Cotonniers and Princesse tam.tam brands (Fast Retailing/Uniqlo Group) then of Elite World modeling agencies.

Biography

A graduate of Paris Dauphine University in 1984 and holder of an MBA from HEC Paris (class of 1986), he became editor of the Création magazine (Strategies Group). In 1987, he created the direct marketing consulting agency Directing with Xavier Romatet.

In 1993, he sold his company to the DDB Group to merge with its direct marketing subsidiary Rapp Collins. President of Rapp Collins France then of Rapp Collins Europe, in 2000 he became managing director of the DDB France group. In March 2003, he left DDB to take over as general manager of the L'Équipe group (L'Équipe, L'Équipe TV, lequipe.fr, France Football, Vélo Magazine, ...).

Alongside his professional career, he became president of Stade de Reims in 1996. During his tenure, the club moved from CFA2 (1997–98 season) to Ligue 2 (in 2002). Christophe Chenut was forced to leave the presidency of the club in May 2004 for reasons of ethical incompatibility with his new professional functions at L'Équipe.

After 5 years of strong development and diversification, he left the L'Équipe group at the end of February 2008 for "strategic differences", according to the official press release. While digital activities have developed strongly, the daily newspaper L'Équipe experienced a decline in circulation in 2007 after four years of strong growth (with the highlight being the Football World Cup in 2006), as did the bi- weekly France Football. As for the weekly Rugby Hebdo, launched in 2006, it was closed after the 2007 World Cup.

Christophe Chenut then became general director of the luxury group Lacoste, from April 1, 2008. In January 2013, he left Lacoste during the sale of the company which followed the internal conflict of the Lacoste family.

In March 2013, he joined Nicolas Beytout's project to launch a new daily digital and paper media, which will be released in May 2013: L'Opinion, of which he was responsible for launching and managing for two and a half years.

From the beginning of 2016 and after a brief stint in the Fast Retailing group (Uniqlo, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam tam) and at the head of Elite World, he focused on his consulting, entrepreneurship and marketing activities. investment through his company Christophe Chenut Conseil SAS.

In this context he has invested in various companies including the purchase of the “Ines de La Fressange” brand, alongside Fabrice Boé, in LAPSA (Petfood) or Socceroof (5-a-side football in the US)... He is also chairman of the supervisory board of Hopscotch Groupe and member of the Board of Directors of the SMCP Group (Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot).

Regarding his mandates in football, he was a director of Paris Saint-Germain F.C. from 2009 to 2011. He left this mandate when the club was bought by Qatar. He then became a shareholder and director of Evian-Thonon-Gaillard FC until the beginning of 2015 when he sold his shares at the same time as around thirty other minority shareholders. From 2017 to 2020 he is administrator of Stade Rennais Football Club and since January 2021 of Lille OSC.

In 2018 he is the author of the book "Ingérables" (How to manage your talents in business) and since March 2020 President of Dauphine Alumni, the alumni association of Dauphine University.