Overview
Louis Besland is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ London office and a member of the Industrial and CEO & Board of Directors practices, working with clients across multiple geographies. He leads the firm’s work in the chemicals sector globally.
Experience
With more than 35 years of professional and leadership experience, Louis advises supervisory boards, executive teams, and financial sponsors on CEO successions, strategic executive recruitment of CXOs and business unit leaders, non-executive board positions, and board effectiveness.
He has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and has built significant expertise internationally along the chemicals and energy value chains. He works particularly with established companies undergoing significant transformations, including mergers, acquisitions, growth strategies, and restructuring. He also works with start-up companies scaling up quickly into growth and in sustainable areas, including circular economy, bioengineering, renewable resources, sustainable industry models, and hydrogen.
Louis has led and co-led several projects and studies and authored papers and podcasts related to the sustainable future of the industry and the evolutions of governance models, including changing the climate in the boardroom, country, and region strategies for the chemical industry of the future, The green accelerators: How purpose-driven leaders in chemical are redefining leadership for the industry, accelerating performance in the chemical industry, and more.
Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, Louis was a partner and managing director, leading industry practices in Europe and the Middle East within prominent strategy and management consultancy groups, including AlixPartners, Kearney, Gemini Consulting, and PA Consulting Group. He started his career as a deck officer in the French Navy.
Education
Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble in France, Master’s Degree in Electrochemical Engineering, with Mathematics and Physics Preparatory Classes