Executive Committee members
Pierre Henry
Group Chief Operating Officer
Chief Executive Officer, Service Vouchers & Cards
Pierre Henry is President of the Service Vouchers and Cards business, which he represents on the Group Operational Committee. The business, which ranks second worldwide, currently has more than 3,408 employees in 31 countries. It generates €447 million in revenues on €7.5 billion in issue volume* by providing 310,000 clients (not including individuals) and nearly 20.2 million beneficiaries with a full range of innovative services.
Following his first experience in sales with the Belgian subsidiary of a US uniform rental and maintenance company, Pierre Henry joined Sodexo in 1980. He was attracted by the Group's entrepreneurial spirit and the potential for the Service Vouchers business, which had been introduced in Belgium two years earlier.
Initially Regional Manager for French-speaking Belgium, he was appointed to head the country's Sales Department in 1982, with the objective of federating teams from two regions with very different cultures and driving business development, especially by creating synergies with teams in the Food Services business. He introduced the first joint visits to clients and oversaw the rapid growth of Sodexo Pass Belgium, which doubled its revenues between 1980 and 1987.
In 1987, Pierre Henry was named Managing Director for Belgium and his teams began to diversify the services offering, starting with the successful rollout of the Pass Cadeau gift voucher. The business was introduced in Luxembourg thanks to the support of logistics teams in Belgium and the Food and Management Services organization in Luxembourg. Between 1987 and 1993, issue volume increased by at least 50% each year. With the 1993 launch of the ALE Pass, which enabled the long-term unemployed to be paid for domestic services provided, Sodexo became the first company to offer solutions designed to optimize the management of public assistance programs.
The same year, Pierre Henry was name to manage Central Europe, where he supervised the start-up of operations, first in Hungary and Austria, then in the Czech Republic in 1995 and Poland and Slovakia in 1997. All of these markets enjoyed very fast growth. Appointed to head the Western Europe, Asia and North Africa region in 2000, Pierre Henry was part of a European team that launched operations in the United Kingdom, which, like Hungary, generated a return on investment in 12 months.
In 2004, Pierre Henry was appointed President of the activity Service Vouchers and Cards. He is also in charge of the Food and Facilities Management services in South America, which has long been overseen by Sodexo Pass. For the coming years, his challenges include speeding the development of synergies, pursuing the growth of “Human Resources Solutions” to improve the quality of life of employees, developing "Social Assistance Solutions" dedicated to support the public politics. He feels that the activity service Vouchers and Cards' growth potential depends largely on the ability to anticipate technological developments, especially in the areas of information and communication. To that end, he has put his trust in the creativity of his teams and developed a management style based on “respect and responsibility.”
Pierre Henry was born in 1952. One of 13 children, he learned from his elders the importance of “listening, which makes it possible to understand and learn.” Married with two children, he has recently become a young grandfather. When not spending time with his family, he enjoys pursuing his passion for antiques in second-hand shops throughout Belgium and France.
*Total number of vouchers and cards multiplied by their face value.
