About

Having worked with global companies, such as Saint-Gobain and Volkswagen, for the majority of his career, Alexandre Marcotte is well suited to his current role of director legal for AkzoNobel’s decorative paint branch. Here he manages globally renowned brands such as Dulux, Sikkens and Hammerite. Over his career Marcotte has had a number of highlights, perhaps his most inventive implementation so far is the ‘set-up and the roll-out of a competition law face-to-face program, tailor-made for different businesses and targets (employees working for sales, marketing, procurement and market intelligence departments)’. He is furthermore credited for his handling of the recall of a colossal number of products, meeting the high expectations of senior management while at the same time retaining their position on the market. In this situation he played a key role in identifying risks and reviewing agreements with a creative mind-set in order to avoid damage pay-outs, all managed in a multi-jurisdictional environment. Marcotte is similarly commended on his redefinition of legal responsibilities amongst his legal team at AkzoNobel in order to adhere to the global nature of company. In conjunction, he has also introduced increased communication with stakeholders and implemented an e-billing tool that provides a clear view of external legal spend. He places great importance on regular communication to corporate management in order to be successful in-house: ‘their time being very limited, it needs to be done in a straightforward way, highlighting risks and opportunities without entering into details. To be able to do so, it is important to understand the business, including of course the vision, challenges and strategy’.