How did the appointment as head of CDK Technologieseuros go?
This appointment is the result of a meeting with Lucien Boyer and Laurent Damiani, head of ISC (Inspiring Sport Capital), a fund specialized in sports projects. Lucien Boyer, of Breton origin, has a sentimental attachment to CDK, of which he has been a shareholder for a long time. He has spent a good part of his career in the world of sailing.
We shared a lot about the CDK project, the takeover and the prospects, following the planned departure of Philippe Facque. They were looking for a manager who would be able to implement a vision for the site.
Are you familiar with the sailing community?
I know sailing by passion, but not in a professional way. I have come across a few people from the sailing world. When I was CEO of the Renault F1 Team, we thought about creating a crossroads between the world of F1 and the French challenges of the America's Cup, such as that of Franck Cammas, through shared knowledge. We looked for synergies and exchanged opportunities.
I've spent the last 30 years looking for the sea and the wind. Now I will discover the other side of the world as I did in the car business 30 years before. I will discover this new environment with a lot of passion.
What are the synergies between F1 and the nautical industry?
These are worlds of passion, commitment and great determination to make programs exist. I admire the skippers, who are also company managers who have to put together an entire project. The day they leave, it is a consecration. They have to find sponsors, finance the project, make a boat exist. In 2015, I had to fight to prove the possibility of setting up an F1 team at Renault.
A composite workshop, whether it makes cars or boats euros even if the sizes are different euros has the same know-how and the men who compose it are similar. The noise, the look, the sensations and the emotions will not be foreign to me.
What are the new ambitions for CDK Technologieseuros?
There are some things that should not change, such as the shipyard's performance in what it undertakes. It has a very good track record and skippers who trust it and recognize the uniqueness of the yard. This commitment to skippers and ocean racing must not change.
On the other hand, there are several things to do. We must find ways to attract more dynamic forces, we have the capacity to welcome workers to have more opportunities to do more projects. We have the means to do more and we will give them to ourselves. This first objective concerns our core business.
We will probably also launch projects to decarbonize maritime freight. There is a consortium project with Chantiers de l'Atlantique to develop large cruise ships and passenger ships to reduce their energy bill and their CO2 emissions. We have a leading role to play in this area.
We also need to support the evolution of sailboat racing, especially in classes we already work with such as the IMOCA. We have to find new methods of construction, design and recycling of boats that use a lot of carbon. CDK is a shipyard that has a real understanding of the use of materials to follow this path. There are also interesting new players like Mer Concept, which has interesting values and positioning on how to be present in the race and respond to changes in this environment.
What is the status of the actueleuros project?
CDK is a company that is doing well, doing very well. It does not need IFC financially. It's a robust, solid company with a good order book and a very strong recognition and reputation. It's an ideal platform to imagine new things. We are going to make CDK evolve to go into new territories, to modernize, without unbalancing the current activity. We are focusing on this balance.
