Global commodity price reporting and news agency Argus has appointed Henri de Castries to its board of directors.

Henri was chairman and chief executive of multinational insurance firm AXA, spending 27 years at the company before retiring in 2016. Prior to AXA, he served in the French treasury department, where he oversaw foreign exchange markets and balance of payments.

Since 2015, Henri has been chairman of French think-tank Institut Montaigne, which reviews French and European public policies and makes recommendations with the aim of strengthening social cohesion, fostering innovation and improving competitiveness.

Henri joined Argus’ majority shareholder General Atlantic as chairman of Europe and special adviser in 2017. In this role, he supports General Atlantic's investment teams in evaluating opportunities in the region and assisting in value creation across the firm’s existing global portfolio of companies.

In addition, Henri is vice-chairman and lead independent director of Nestlé. He serves as a non-executive director of HSBC Group and of the French National Foundation for Political Sciences.

“We are delighted to welcome Henri to our board,” Argus chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. “He brings a wealth of practical experience in growing a global business from his time at AXA. Henri has had a distinguished career and his finance and government contacts in Europe and beyond will help Argus as we continue to expand our global business”.

About Argus Media

Argus is an independent media organisation with almost 1,100 staff. It is headquartered in London and has 26 offices in the world’s principal commodity trading and production centres. Argus produces price assessments and analysis of international energy and other commodity markets and offers bespoke consulting services and industry-leading conferences.

Companies in 140 countries around the world use Argus data to index physical trade and as benchmarks in financial derivative markets as well as for analysis and planning purposes.

Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. It is owned by employee shareholders, global growth equity firm General Atlantic and Hg, the specialist software and technology services investor.

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