HR Director & HR Business Partner · multi-country · France · UK · USA · Benelux
Transform and preserve.
Multi-country HR Director and HR Business Partner. From day-to-day HR to crisis management: restructurings, post-merger harmonizations, tense labor negotiations — handled with tenacity, without breaking teams or the social climate. Strategic and hands-on, sleeves rolled up.
Multi-country HR Director and HR Business Partner, immediately operational — on assignment or permanent. 15+ years across companies of all sizes, from startups to large international groups: day-to-day HR and talent development, but also crisis management, restructurings, post-merger harmonizations and project management — driven by a genuine taste for labor negotiation, skillful and tenacious. Write to me, or find me on LinkedIn.
15+ years bringing the HR function to life, structuring and transforming it — in the most demanding environments, without ever breaking what works.
France · UK · USA · Benelux · Germany · Spain · Poland — from startup to LBO-owned group.
Crisis management, restructurings, harmonizations, labor negotiations, HR project management.
Experience
HRBP — Interim management · Unisys
US matrix organization (cybersecurity, AI, managed IT). Assertive works council, expert mandates, employee-representative relations in a demanding social climate.
Outcome → led a staff-transfer and restructuring program, fully compliant with legal and social obligations.
HR Director · Pinnacle Pet Group
Pet-insurance scale-up (PE-backed), 3 regulated entities. Day-to-day HR, social dialogue and manager coaching.
Outcome → HR structuring of a fast-growing organization.
HRBP France — 3 sites · Sun Chemical
World leader in inks and pigments, 3 sites. Site HR management and social dialogue — including leading a full collective-redundancy plan as Works Council Chair, carried through to the end and by the book.
Outcome → HRIS rollout and standardization of HR processes across sites.
HRBP France · NXP Semiconductors
High-tech matrix organization, 650 employees (R&D, marketing, sales). Active union representation, structured engagement with employee reps.
Outcome → post-merger harmonization of two legal entities, including negotiating substitution agreements.
Group HR Director — Interim management · Diana Food
International food-ingredients group. North American expansion: opening a US production site, acquisition in Canada.
Outcome → multi-country HR integration and harmonization of the French legal entities.
HR Director Europe · CBI (ex-Bosch, LBO)
Carve-out from Bosch under private-equity ownership. French central works council and European Works Council run in parallel.
Outcome → built an autonomous HR function post carve-out (policies & processes), and led restructurings in France and Poland.
HR Director France · AstraZeneca / Novexel
Pharma. HR leadership across 3 sites (production, logistics, R&D), 1,000 employees — including the integration of Novexel, a biotech startup acquired by the group (49 employees in France, 25 in Boston). Social dialogue, works council and institutional relations.
Outcome → successful post-acquisition integration, team support and a pan-European HRIS.
HRBP / Organizational Development · GE Financial Solutions
US organization, 500 employees (banking, leasing, fleet management).
Outcome → 2 M&A integrations and 3 redundancy plans in a regulated financial environment.
HR Director Europe · Federal-Mogul
Automotive supplier, heavily unionized production sites in France and the UK.
Outcome → full closure of the UK site: consultation, social plan, knowledge transfer.
HRBP · Nortel Networks
Three sites (France, Ireland, Canada), 800 employees. Industrial restructurings, labor relations, HR oversight for France.
Officer, then engineering · an unconventional path
Army officer (UN Blue Helmets; liaison officer at SHAPE) before retraining in engineering, then HR. Along the way: training in Michelin-starred kitchens and founding a café featured three times in the New York Times.
EDUCATION
LANGUAGES
My approach
The way I work.
Diplomatic and tenacious in negotiation, close to the field, as comfortable hands-on as in strategy. I run the day-to-day, I lead crises and transformations, always respecting people and social dialogue.
Because I'm human too
Off the clock.
Belgian and happily offbeat — curious about everything outside the box. Former army officer (UN Blue Helmets), who retrained in engineering then HR. I trained in Michelin-starred kitchens, and even started a café featured three times in the New York Times. Father of two young adults, two dogs and two cats who think they run the house.
⚡ Rapid fireGet in touch
Open to opportunities and assignments, in France and internationally.