Elis Adds COO Yann Michel to Management Board as Lecharny’s Term Ends

Elis Group Chief Operating Officer Yann Michel joins the French circular-services company’s Management Board on September 5, succeeding Matthieu Lecharny as Lecharny’s term expires after more than 16 years with the group. Michel begins a four-year board term running through September 5, 2030.

The change is the effective date of a succession plan set out three months ago, rather than a new appointment decision made this weekend. Elis also renewed the terms of Management Board Chairman Xavier Martiré and Chief Financial Officer Louis Guyot for another four years, giving all three seats the same September 2030 end date.

In its June 4 governance announcement, Elis said its Supervisory Board selected Michel to succeed Lecharny and fixed the appointment to take effect on September 5. Lecharny had chosen not to seek a renewed mandate as he planned a new professional direction and a personal project.

Michel moves from Group COO into the Management Board

Michel is not a newcomer to Elis’s senior leadership. He was already part of the company’s Executive Committee before taking the Management Board seat, and Elis currently identifies him as Group COO. The distinction matters because the Management Board is the company’s formal executive governing body, while the Executive Committee is a broader senior-management group that helps define and carry out strategy.

The company operates with a separate Supervisory Board that oversees the Management Board. Elis’s governance materials say the supervisory body follows management objectives and their execution, reviews areas including investment and risk control, and checks the half-year and annual consolidated accounts prepared by management. Michel’s elevation therefore adds an operations executive directly to the smaller statutory body that sits at the center of those responsibilities.

His career at Elis spans more than two decades. An engineer by training, Michel began his professional career with automotive supplier Montupet before joining Elis in 2004 as a production manager. He later ran an Elis operating center and went on to lead several regions in France. The company’s 2025 universal registration document listed him as a deputy chief operating officer with responsibility covering France, Great Britain and Ireland.

By the time the board succession was announced in June 2026, Elis described Michel as Group Chief Operating Officer. It said he oversaw the Pest Control business, operations across three French regions, and the group’s activities in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Eastern Europe. Elis cited his operational record, knowledge of the business and international experience as reasons for choosing him for the Management Board.

Lecharny exits the board as four-year terms reset

Lecharny remained a Management Board member through the September 5 expiry date rather than leaving immediately after the June announcement. Elis said he had spent more than 16 years with the group and had decided to pursue a different professional path, including a personal project.

His departure from the board closes a period in which he combined a Management Board seat with senior operating duties. In the 2025 governance structure, Lecharny was identified as the deputy chief operating officer responsible for Southern Europe and Latin America. Michel, meanwhile, held a separate regional operating remit at that point, so the change in board membership should not be read simply as a transfer of Lecharny’s former geographic portfolio.

Elis has continued to reshape its operating leadership. Its current governance page lists Michel as Group COO and separately names executives responsible for France; Southern Europe and the Americas; the United Kingdom, Ireland, Eastern Europe and the Baltic states; the Nordic countries, Benelux and Asia; and Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That structure leaves Michel in a group-wide operating role as he enters the Management Board.

The other two members provide continuity. Martiré remains Chairman of the Management Board and chief executive, while Guyot remains a board member and chief financial officer. Their renewed mandates, like Michel’s, run to September 5, 2030. The scheduled handover therefore changes one seat without altering the leadership of the board or the finance function.

The handover comes as Elis keeps its 2026 targets

Michel takes the board seat during a year in which Elis has maintained its financial objectives despite a softer economic backdrop in parts of Europe. For the first half of 2026, the company reported revenue of €2.457 billion, up 4.9% from a year earlier, including 3.2% organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA rose 4.9% to €853.8 million, and the adjusted EBITDA margin held at 34.7%.

Net income increased 7.3% to €163.6 million in the half. Elis also reiterated its full-year objectives, including organic revenue growth slightly below the 3.8% achieved in 2025, slight increases in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBIT margins, mid-single-digit growth in free cash flow, and high-single-digit growth in diluted headline net income per share.

Two areas connected with Michel’s earlier operating responsibilities illustrate the mixed conditions facing the group. France generated €701.1 million of first-half revenue, up 2.5% on a reported basis and 2.0% organically, while its adjusted EBITDA margin increased 90 basis points to 42.7%. UK and Ireland revenue was €284.7 million, down 0.8% as reported because of currency effects but up 1.6% organically; the region’s adjusted EBITDA margin edged down to 31.8% from 31.9%.

Elis said new contract signings reached a record level across its geographies in the first half, but it also pointed to slower activity in some European sectors and continued cost pressure, including higher statutory minimum wages in the UK and Germany. Those operating conditions give the board change practical relevance beyond the formal succession timetable because Michel’s career has been concentrated in production and regional operations rather than a central corporate function.

The next scheduled investor events come quickly after the new term begins. Elis is due to attend the Kepler Autumn Conference in Paris on September 8 and the UBS Business Services, Leisure and Transport Conference in London on September 10. Its next scheduled financial release is third-quarter 2026 revenue on October 28.