AFRICA. Lagardère Travel Retail has named Sountou Bousso as Chief Executive Officer Senegal & Gabon, with immediate effect. He takes over from Bruno Bouchacourt, who is retiring after two decades with the company.
A Senegalese citizen, Sountou Bousso will lead the development of Lagardère Travel Retail’s operations in the two markets. His appointment, said the company, is aligned to its ambition to promote local leadership and empowerment. “These are critical to strengthen the company’s position as a leading international travel retail operator in Western Africa and to enable greater agility and flexibility in the day-to-day management of the business,” it added.
Bousso joins from catering group Newrest International, where he was most recently General Manager for Cameroon and Senegal. Before this, he was General Manager of Newrest in Angola and in New Caledonia.
He holds a Technician Diploma from the Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique (Senegal) and an Engineering Degree from the ESIAB School of Engineering (France). He also has two Master’s Degrees in Marketing Management and International Trade (Brest Business School) and in International Management (HEC Paris).
Bruno Bouchacourt has held many different roles in France and abroad with Lagardère Travel Retail. He managed the duty free operations at Eurodis (Eurotunnel – France), and oversaw the development of other international duty free operations for the company.
In 2012 he was involved in the takeover of the Aeroporti di Roma duty free business. After the acquisition of Airest in 2015, he managed the duty free and fashion business for the group in Italy.
Lagardère Travel Retail Chief Operating Officer, EMEA Frédéric Chevalier said: “I am delighted to have Sountou onboard and confident his international experience, in- depth local knowledge and track record of running local operations within complex global organisations will further consolidate our position as leading international operator in Western Africa.
“I also want to take this opportunity to thank Bruno for his tremendous contribution to growing the company and in particular for successfully launching our operations in Western Africa. I know he will be very missed by all the colleagues and business partners he has worked with over so many years. I envy Bruno’s future guests who will very soon enjoy his cooking talents in the guest house he will be opening in the South of France.”
Lagardère Travel Retail began operations at Blaise Diagne Airport in Senegal in 2017 and at Libreville Airport in Gabon in 2019.
