Truchot Steps Down as Ipsos Chair due to Illness

Ipsos founder Didier Truchot today informed the Board of Directors of his intention to step down as Chairman, for reasons of ill health, after more than fifty years leading the company. He will be replaced in the Chair by Ms. Laurence Stoclet, but will retain his roles as Director and major shareholder.

Truchot (pictured above) has been suffering from digestive tract cancer for nearly four years, and told the Board in a meeting in Paris that the disease's 'recent evolution... would require an increasing share of his attention and energy.' The role will change hands at the end of February.

Truchot founded the company in 1975 and has led and guided it to a headcount of around 20,000 people, and a presence in 90 countries, staunchly defending its independence and combining a willingness to pioneer new technologies and techniques - multiple GRIT wins attest - with respect for its roots in survey research. His former IFOP colleague Jean-Marc Lech joined him in 1982 as co-President, and the two helmed Ipsos for more than three decades until Lech's death in 2014. Truchot's strong opinions on the direction of the company have occasionally been manifest in the departure of execs with different views, and continued strong results throughout the 21st century to date have appeared to bear out his vision. He stepped back from the CEO role in 2021, initially with the news that former L'Oréal exec Nathalie Roos would take the job, but when 'deep discrepancies' emerged between her and Truchot, longtime Ipsos MORI leader Ben Page was drafted in. Page stepped down in August last year, replaced by Accenture veteran Jean-Laurent Poitou, with Truchot's influence still readily apparent.

In 2020, interviewed by MrWeb for our Data Visualization special issue, Truchot was upbeat about the future of the insight sector and the lasting need of industry and society for its expertise. Asked to pick one technology to watch, he answered that 'the most central question for us is how we use more broadly AI in our industry', suggesting it held the key to 'finding what is relevant in the vast amount of information that everybody has and nobody knows what to do with.' However, in typically thoughtful fashion, he questioned its ability to anticipate future events, especially at a time of major disruption in the world.


The Board was unanimous in appointing Stoclet (pictured below), on the recommendation of the Appointments and Compensation Committee. She has served in executive positions at the company since 1998, first as CFO and then from 2010 to 2022 was Deputy Chief Executive; and has been a Board member since 2002. In addition, the Board voted to strengthen its governance by appointing Anne-Marie Couderc as Lead Independent Director - she has been a Board member for seven months and is Chair of the Appointments and Compensation Committee.

Stoclet spent three years prior to Ipsos managing the Etudes ESCP association at ESCP Business School, from which she holds an MBA in Banking and Finance. In the 1990s she worked for Goldman Sachs and Arthur Andersen. As Ipsos' Deputy CEO she oversaw more than 100 acquisitions and integration plans, managed the Group's back-office operations and human resources, and oversaw investments in new technologies, as well as the Group's 1,000 professional IT engineers. In January 2020 she launched the Ipsos.digital platform.

Since leaving the Deputy CEO role in 2022 she has served as CEO of Truchot's company DT & Partners, the main shareholder of the Ipsos Group, and from 2023 to 2025 was Chair of DFCG Île-de-France, the national association of finance executives. She also serves as an advisor to current Ipsos global CEO Jean Laurent Poitou on certain financial matters, and is an independent director on the Board of global payment solutions company Ingenico.


Truchot told the Board today he believes Ipsos can 'seize the considerable opportunities offered by the development and implementation of new technologies, particularly those related to artificial intelligence.' He also expressed his confidence in new CEO Jean Laurent Poitou, and in his ability, with his team, to implement the changes needed to keep the company in its position as 'undisputed world leader in its market.' The firm's statement said the Board 'expressed their full support and friendship to Didier Truchot', before appointing him Chairman Emeritus.

Web site: www.ipsos.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.