André Lacroix

André Lacroix
Born	1960
Nationality	French
Education	École de Commerce de Paris (ESCP)
Occupation	Business executive
Company	Intertek
Title	Chief Executive Officer, Intertek Group plc

André Lacroix (born 1960) is a French business executive who has been chief executive officer of Intertek Group plc, the London-based quality assurance, testing, inspection and certification company, since May 16, 2015. Before joining Intertek he spent nearly ten years as group chief executive of Inchcape plc, the international automotive distributor and retailer, and two years as chairman and chief executive of Euro Disney S.C.A., the operator of Disneyland Paris.

Lacroix trained at the École de Commerce de Paris and worked for Ernst & Young and Colgate-Palmolive before spending eight years in international marketing and general management roles at PepsiCo. He joined Burger King in 1996 as general manager for Germany and rose to president of Burger King International, responsible for the brand outside North America, during the period when the chain was owned by Diageo.

At Euro Disney, Lacroix led the company through the 2004 to 2005 financial restructuring agreed with its lenders and The Walt Disney Company, which included a share capital increase of €253.3 million. At Inchcape he steered the group through the 2008 to 2009 collapse in car sales and a subsequent recovery, and in his final year the company reported record operating profit of £318.4 million on sales of £6.7 billion.

As Intertek's chief executive, Lacroix introduced a "5x5" strategy in 2016 and an "AAA" growth strategy in 2023, and repositioned the company around what it calls Total Quality Assurance, combining assurance services with traditional testing, inspection and certification. In June 2026 the board recommended a cash takeover by funds managed by the Swedish private equity firm EQT that valued the company's equity at about £9.5 billion; as of October 28, 2026, Lacroix remained chief executive and the deal was expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027.

Early life and education

Lacroix was born in 1960; Euro Disney gave his age as 43 when it announced his appointment in March 2003, and as 44 in its annual report filed in January 2005. Euro Disney described him as "a French native" who spoke five languages fluently.

He graduated from the École de Commerce de Paris, the business school now known as ESCP Business School. Details of his family background and upbringing have not been published in the sources reviewed for this article.

Career

Early career: Ernst & Young, Colgate-Palmolive and PepsiCo

Lacroix began his working life with the accounting firm Ernst & Young and then worked for Colgate-Palmolive, according to the biography Euro Disney filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 1988 he joined Pepsi-Cola International as international marketing manager for the 7 Up brand. He became marketing director for the Middle East and Africa in 1990, and in 1991 was promoted to operations director for Pepsi in East Germany. From 1993 to 1996 he was general manager of Pepsi's operations in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. His later employer summarised this period as "several international assignments with Pepsico" between 1988 and 1996.

Burger King, 1996 to 2003

Lacroix joined Burger King in September 1996 as general manager for Germany, and in June 1998 his remit was extended to Germany and Northern Europe. Euro Disney's announcement of his later appointment credited him with "the turnaround of this market, tripling the business in the past five years" in Germany. He was promoted to president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 1999, a role in which he took the brand into several new markets and introduced new products.

In 2001 Lacroix became president of Burger King International, responsible for the development, management and profitability of the brand outside North America. Burger King was at that time part of the British drinks group Diageo. According to a 2014 biography of Lacroix, in this role he expanded the brand's international footprint to some 3,000 sites in 55 countries, worked on product quality and customer service, and "led the transition from Diageo ownership to an international consortium of buyers".

Euro Disney, 2003 to 2005

On March 28, 2003, James A. Rasulo, chairman of Euro Disney S.A., announced Lacroix's nomination as chairman and chief executive officer of Euro Disney S.A., the management company of Euro Disney S.C.A., which operated Disneyland Resort Paris. Rasulo was moving to become president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. In the announcement he said that Lacroix's "outstanding leadership skills combined with a strategic vision and a wonderful sense of creativity" had helped make Burger King "one of the fastest growing brands internationally". Lacroix took up the post in July 2003.

He arrived at a difficult time for the resort. Euro Disney's 2004 annual report on Form 20-F said that revenue had fallen and losses had increased from fiscal 2003, which it attributed to "a prolonged downturn in European travel and tourism combined with challenging general economic and geopolitical conditions in key markets", and that visitor numbers and revenue at the new Walt Disney Studios Park were below expectations. The company concluded that without a new restructuring it would not be able to restore compliance with covenants in its credit agreements or meet some of its financial obligations. Attendance at the two theme parks was stable at about 12.4 million in fiscal 2004, but the group's net loss widened to €145.2 million, from a pro forma €58.3 million the previous year.

In September 2004 the company signed a memorandum of agreement with its main lenders and The Walt Disney Company for a comprehensive restructuring, followed by definitive agreements in December 2004. The main terms were:

• a share capital increase through a rights offering of at least €250 million, partly subscribed by Disney;
• a new ten-year revolving credit line from Disney of €150 million, falling to €100 million after September 30, 2009;
• deferral of debt service in exchange for a higher interest rate, and deferral of part of the management fees and royalties owed to Disney affiliates, €125 million unconditionally and up to €200 million conditionally;
• authorisation of a €240 million plan to develop new theme park attractions.

The rights offering, launched on January 20, 2005, raised €253.3 million and was oversubscribed by about nine percent; 2.8 billion new shares were offered at €0.09 each. Lacroix signed Euro Disney's 2004 Form 20-F as chairman and chief executive of the management company on January 10, 2005. On February 23, 2005, the company announced that its legal and financial restructuring was complete.

On May 19, 2005, Euro Disney announced that Lacroix was "leaving the company to pursue other opportunities" and that Karl Holz, the president and chief operating officer, would take over his responsibilities with immediate effect. In his parting statement Lacroix said: "The growth strategy is in place with an unprecedented multi-year innovation program." Rasulo said that "with the financial restructuring of Euro Disney now complete", Holz's operations experience would be an asset. The Independent described the resignation as unexpected.

Inchcape, 2005 to 2015

In June 2005 Inchcape, the London-listed automotive services group, announced that Lacroix would succeed Peter Johnson as group chief executive. He joined the board on September 1, 2005 and took over as chief executive on January 1, 2006. Sir John Egan, the outgoing chairman, called him "a first rate successor to Peter". At the time The Independent noted that Lacroix had "headed a financial restructuring" during his two years at Euro Disney.

Lacroix later said that Inchcape had pursued what it called a "Customer 1st" strategy throughout his tenure, built on customer research and proprietary retail operating processes branded "Inchcape Advantage". In his last annual statement he described the company's business as providing "the world's leading car manufacturers with a professional, well-financed route to market across 26 territories worldwide", either as a distributor handling import, logistics, marketing and dealer networks for a brand in a country, or as a retailer operating large dealerships.

Financial crisis

The 2008 financial crisis hit the group hard. On December 15, 2008, Inchcape warned that its 2009 results would be "significantly" below previous expectations, and the board said it would not recommend a final dividend. Lacroix said at the time: "The unprecedented and rapid downturn faced by the car industry around the world will [have an] impact [on] our results in 2009." The shares fell almost 28 percent that day to 51p, and the company said it was talking to its lenders to ensure its financing arrangements were appropriate for the downturn. In 2009 Inchcape carried out a rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet; The Guardian reported in April 2009 that the shares had been upgraded by Morgan Stanley after the issue.

According to Lacroix, the group's "Top Five Priorities", a set of commercial and cash disciplines covering market share, aftersales, margins, working capital and capital spending, were first developed "in response to the dawning of the financial crisis back in 2008". The 2010 strategic review set a policy of holding no more than 1.5 months of stock cover.

Recovery

In 2010 Inchcape reported profit before tax and exceptional items of £214.0 million and operating profit before exceptional items of £225.5 million, and Lacroix wrote that the group had ended the year "with profits ahead of our expectations". In October 2010, with UK demand slowing after the end of the government's car scrappage incentive and demand falling in Greece, the company said it would sell ten dealerships in the UK, Singapore, Greece and Belgium, reducing its workforce by 500 from 14,141. Lacroix said then that "the group has performed better than expected in the third quarter and Inchcape will deliver a robust earnings recovery in 2010".

By 2014, according to Lacroix's final chief executive's statement, 83 percent of group earnings came from distribution and 17 percent from retail, and 75 percent came from Asia Pacific and emerging markets, with the remaining 25 percent from the UK and Europe. He wrote that six long-standing brand partners, Toyota, Volkswagen-Audi, BMW, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover, delivered about 90 percent of group profits. Overheads had fallen by 200 basis points as a proportion of revenue since 2009, the company had completed £150 million of share buybacks since 2012, return on capital employed before exceptional items had reached 26 percent, and five-year total shareholder return stood at 173 percent. In 2014 sales rose 2.7 percent to £6.7 billion, and operating profit before exceptional items (£318.4 million) and profit before tax and exceptional items (£303.2 million) were both records. Lacroix described 2014 as Inchcape's fifth successive year of double-digit underlying earnings growth.

The 2014 announcement of Lacroix's next appointment stated that Inchcape's market capitalisation had "more than doubled" since he became chief executive. When the move was announced on September 30, 2014, Inchcape's shares fell by almost five percent and those of his new employer rose by more than two percent. In his farewell statement, written for the 2014 annual report, Lacroix called his nearly ten years at the company "an exhilarating drive" and wrote: "For me, this feels like the right time to hand over the stewardship of the business."

Intertek, 2015 to present

Appointment

On September 30, 2014, Intertek announced that Lacroix would succeed Wolfhart Hauser, who had been chief executive for ten years, with effect from May 16, 2015. The chairman, Sir David Reid, said Lacroix had "consistently succeeded in driving growth and performance in his career". Lacroix said the company was "an exciting company positively influencing the health, safety and environmental impact of industries worldwide". At the time the group had more than 36,000 employees and more than 1,000 laboratories and offices in more than 100 countries. Shortly before Lacroix took office, shareholders voted against the company's remuneration report over the terms of his recruitment package (see Controversies).

5x5 strategy

On March 2, 2016, after what he described as ten months of analysis and customer research, Lacroix presented a strategy update titled "Portfolio Focus on Attractive Growth and Margin Opportunities". The update argued that the industry was evolving from testing, inspection and certification (TIC) towards "Total Quality Assurance", or ATIC, which adds assurance of clients' supply chains and management systems to traditional product testing. It estimated the global quality assurance market at about $250 billion. Lacroix said the "5x5" strategy, built on five strategic priorities and five enablers, would "move the centre of gravity of the company towards the attractive growth and margin areas in the industry". The five priorities were a strong brand proposition, delivering Total Quality Assurance with superior service, an effective sales strategy focused on cross-selling, a portfolio strategy aimed at business lines and countries with good growth and margin prospects, and operational excellence to drive productivity.

The same document recorded that by 2015 the group had 41,434 employees and revenue of £2,166 million, compared with 11,000 employees and £461 million of revenue at its 2002 flotation.

Acquisitions and the assurance business

Lacroix used acquisitions to expand the group in building and construction and in assurance. In November 2015 the company completed its purchase of Professional Service Industries (PSI), a US engineering and testing firm serving the construction market, shortly after it bought the materials testing business MT Group.

In August 2018 Lacroix's company agreed to buy Alchemy Investment Holdings, an Austin, Texas, provider of software-based training for frontline food industry workers, for US$480 million financed from debt facilities and cash. Lacroix said the deal would expand the group's assurance business into what it called "People Assurance".

In May 2021 the company announced the acquisition of SAI Global Assurance, an Australian-headquartered management systems certification and audit business with a strong position in food, agriculture and quick-service restaurant audits. Lacroix said: "As we emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we expect our customers to increase their focus on Risk-Based Quality Assurance."

COVID-19 pandemic

In the 2021 annual results, Lacroix argued that the pandemic had "made the case for Total Quality Assurance clearer and stronger for our clients", and that it had caused "the greatest dislocation of the global supply chain since the 1970s". The company held its dividend at 105.8p a share for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

AAA strategy

In 2023 Lacroix launched what the company calls its "AAA differentiated growth strategy", with medium-term targets of mid-single-digit like-for-like revenue growth, margin progression towards 18.5 percent or more, strong cash generation and disciplined investment to deliver returns on invested capital above the cost of capital. In the 2025 annual report he wrote that since the strategy was announced, the group had delivered cumulative revenue growth of 18.4 percent at constant currency, 240 basis points of margin improvement and cumulative earnings per share growth of 33.4 percent, and had returned £985 million to shareholders.

Strategic review and EQT takeover

About a month before May 13, 2026, Lacroix's company began a strategic review that included evaluating a sale or demerger of its energy and infrastructure division. EQT submitted its first proposal shortly after April 9, 2026, and the board rejected proposals at £51, £54 and £58 a share before saying on May 13, 2026, that it was "minded to recommend" a £60 a share offer. The Guardian reported that the company, "led by the chief executive, André Lacroix", had come under pressure from some investors to sell. Matt Peltz's fund Lost Coast Collective, which held 1.2 percent of the shares, wrote that "the market clearly does not believe in the team's ability to execute"; Palliser Capital, Harris Associates and PrimeStone Capital also urged the board to engage with EQT, while Marathon Asset Management said fair value was over £60 a share.

On June 18, 2026, the company and Isotope Bidco Limited, a company indirectly owned by EQT X funds alongside minority investors including Luxinva and Mubadala, announced a recommended final cash offer. Shareholders were to receive £60 in cash plus the 2025 final dividend of 107.7p, a total value of about £61.08 per share. That valued the equity at about £9.5 billion and implied an enterprise value of about £10.9 billion, a 62 percent premium to the share price on April 9, 2026. Lacroix said: "In EQT I truly believe we have a partner who is as committed as we are to accelerating our growth and enabling Intertek to unleash its full potential for our clients and our people over the years ahead." Matthias Wittkowski, global head of services at EQT Private Equity, said EQT was "proud to be trusted as stewards of this impressive global business that André and Intertek's colleagues have built."

Lacroix gave an irrevocable undertaking to vote his 616,664 shares, about 0.40 percent of the issued share capital, in favour of the scheme. The offer document said Bidco had not discussed incentive arrangements with Lacroix or other members of management, beyond cash awards to replace long-term incentive awards that would not vest on completion, and that any such discussions would wait until after the deal took effect. Shareholders approved the scheme, and the October 2026 trading statement, issued under Lacroix's name as chief executive, said completion was on track for the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027, subject to outstanding regulatory approvals.

Leadership and management style

Lacroix's public statements return repeatedly to customer service as the source of competitive advantage. At Inchcape he described a "Customer 1st" strategy supported by 16,000 customer interviews a month, and argued that the company's partner brands often performed better in Inchcape-run markets than elsewhere. He set out operating disciplines as numbered programmes: the "Top Five Priorities" at Inchcape, a set of 12 processes branded "Formula Inchcape", and later Lacroix's "5x5" and "AAA" strategies at Intertek.

He has emphasised decentralised management combined with central performance tracking. Inchcape's 2010 strategic review described a "decentralised and empowered" organisation, and his 2014 statement called the group a "glo-cal organisation" that set up a strong local presence supported by "strong governance and performance management centrally". Lacroix's 2016 strategy update listed "living our customer centric culture" among its enablers and described a "strong entrepreneurial spirit and a decentralised organisation".

Cash and working capital discipline is another recurring theme. At Inchcape the stock-cover ceiling of 1.5 months was tracked daily, and at his next company the October 2026 trading statement cited "daily cash management discipline". Lacroix's results statements routinely open with thanks to employees: in the 2026 half-year results he said he "would like to recognise all my colleagues" for "implementing our AAA differentiated strategy for growth with passion and excellence".

Lacroix set out his views on leadership in a book, Leadership with Soul: Putting People at the Heart of Your Growth Strategy, published by World Scientific in 2022.

Major deals and strategic decisions

• Burger King change of ownership: as president of Burger King International, Lacroix led the international business through the transition from Diageo ownership to a consortium of buyers.
• Euro Disney restructuring, 2004 to 2005: Euro Disney agreed with its lenders and The Walt Disney Company to raise new equity, defer debt service, royalties and management fees, and obtain a €150 million credit line from Disney. The €253.3 million rights issue closed in February 2005.
• Inchcape crisis measures, 2008 to 2010: Inchcape suspended its final dividend for 2008 and raised equity through a rights issue in 2009. In 2010 it decided to sell ten dealerships in four slow-growing markets.
• Inchcape share buybacks, 2012 to 2014: £150 million of shares were bought back.
• PSI, 2015: the company completed the acquisition of Professional Service Industries on November 23, 2015.
• Alchemy, 2018: the company agreed to buy Alchemy for US$480 million.
• SAI Global Assurance, 2021: the company announced the acquisition of the Australian assurance business.
• 2026 acquisitions: the company completed the acquisitions of AePVI and QTEST in the first half of 2026.
• EQT takeover, 2026: the board recommended the sale of the company to EQT-led Isotope Bidco at a total value of about £61.08 per share.

Financial and market performance

Euro Disney

During Lacroix's tenure Euro Disney's theme park attendance was about 12.4 million in both fiscal 2003 and fiscal 2004. The group's net loss for fiscal 2004 was €145.2 million, and shareholders' equity fell to a deficit of €59.9 million at September 30, 2004, before the restructuring took effect.

Inchcape

Inchcape's shares fell to 51p after its December 2008 profit warning. In 2010 the group reported profit before tax and exceptional items of £214.0 million. In 2014, Lacroix's final full year, sales were £6.7 billion, operating profit before exceptional items was a record £318.4 million and five-year total shareholder return was 173 percent. The group employed 14,141 people in October 2010.

Intertek

Selected results under Lacroix

Year	Revenue	Adjusted operating profit	Full-year dividend per share	Source
2015	£2,166 million	£343 million (operating profit)	52.3p
2017	£2,769.1 million	£468 million	71.3p
2019	£2,987 million	£513.3 million	105.8p
2021	£2,786.3 million	£474 million	105.8p
2025	£3,431.6 million	£620 million	165.0p

In 2017 the company reported a record adjusted operating margin of 16.9 percent and raised its targeted dividend payout ratio to about 50 percent of earnings from 2018. Lacroix described 2019 as "the fifth consecutive year of revenue, EPS and cash progression", with return on invested capital of 22.8 percent. Revenue in 2021 was below the 2019 level at actual exchange rates, but Lacroix's company reported like-for-like growth of 5.6 percent at constant rates and an adjusted operating margin of 17.0 percent.

In 2025 revenue rose 4.3 percent at constant currency to £3,431.6 million, the adjusted operating margin improved by 90 basis points, and the company employed 45,425 people. In the first half of 2026 revenue was £1,771 million and the adjusted operating margin reached 17.5 percent. Revenue for the first nine months of 2026 was £2,713.1 million, up 6.4 percent at constant currency.

The share price was £37.70 on April 9, 2026, the last business day before EQT's first proposal, and £43.63 on April 15, 2026, before the offer period began.

Compensation

The 2025 annual report gives Lacroix's total remuneration as £6.199 million for 2025 and £6.611 million for 2024. The 2025 figure comprised a base salary of £1.078 million, benefits of £157,000, an annual incentive of £1.133 million, long-term incentives valued at £3.755 million and pension of £76,000. His benefits included the use of a car and driver. The ratio of his pay to that of the median UK employee was 144:1 in 2025, against 172:1 in 2024 and 89:1 in 2022.

Board memberships and outside roles

While chief executive of Inchcape, Lacroix was a non-executive director of Reckitt Benckiser Group plc and chairman of Good Restaurants AG. By September 2014 he had become Reckitt Benckiser's senior independent director. Lacroix has served on the Intertek board as chief executive since May 2015. The 2025 annual report lists no significant external appointments for him and states that no executive director held an external appointment.

Controversies

Intertek recruitment package, 2015

At the Intertek annual general meeting on May 15, 2015, the day before Lacroix took office, more than 51 percent of shareholders voted against the remuneration report. The Guardian called it "one of the first major rebellions over executive pay in the 2015 annual general meeting season". The package offered to compensate Lacroix for share awards he forfeited on leaving Inchcape had included a guaranteed bonus of £560,000. After the vote the company said that "the board, in consultation with the incoming CEO, has determined that his 2015 bonus will now be subject to the usual performance criteria and a compensatory award in this regard will no longer be made". The newspaper reported that he would still receive 183,149 shares in two tranches over two years, worth about £5 million, with no performance conditions attached.

Later votes were less contentious. At the 2024 annual general meeting, 92.54 percent of votes cast supported the remuneration policy, and at the 2025 meeting 94.91 percent supported the remuneration report.

Investor criticism, 2026

During EQT's approaches in 2026, some shareholders publicly questioned management's plans. Lost Coast Collective, managed by Matt Peltz, wrote to the board that "while the board and management may have confidence in a partial sale and an operational fix, the market clearly does not believe in the team's ability to execute. If it did, the stock would be much higher." Other investors argued that the board should hold out for a higher price.

Personal life

Euro Disney's 2003 announcement said that Lacroix spoke five languages fluently. No information about his family has been published in the sources reviewed for this article.

Works

• Lacroix, André (2022). Leadership with Soul: Putting People at the Heart of Your Growth Strategy. World Scientific.

See also

• Intertek
• Inchcape plc
• Euro Disney S.C.A.
• Burger King
• EQT AB

External links

• Intertek Group plc official website