The Board of Directors of Elf Atochem elected François Cornélis Chairman of the Board at its meeting on March 30. Elf Atochem will soon become Atofina within the structure combining Totafina and Elf Aquitaine.

François Cornélis succeeds Jacques Puéchal, who was head of Elf Atochem for 17 years. The Board wished to signal out Mr. Puéchal’s contribution by naming him Honorary Chairman.

Mr. Cornélis will head up all of the chemicals activities of the new group TotalFinaElf, which will be reorganized under the name Atofina. These activities represent 1999 pro forma sales (excluding intersegment sales) of 17.4 billion euros and operate in three main businesses: petrochemicals and plastics, intermediates and performance polymers and specialties They employ 70,000 people on five continents.

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François Cornélis was born in 1949 and obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Louvain in Belgium. He joined PetroFina in 1973. After serving as a systems engineer in the data processing center from 1974 to 1978, he became Supply and Shipping Manager of PetroFina UK and in 1983, Vice-President of American PetroFina in Dallas. He was appointed Executive Director and Assistant to the President of PetroFina in 1986, CEO and Managing Director in 1990 and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1991. Following the merger with Total in 1999, François Cornélis became Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of Totalfina and Senior Vice President, Petrochemicals, Paints and US Operations. He was named Executive Vice President of the Chemicals Division of TotalFinaElf in February.

Jacques Puéchal was born in 1936 and attended the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Mines. He was Chairman and President of Elf Atochem since its creation in 1983 and Executive Vice President Chemicals of Elf Aquitaine since 1988. As a member of the Executive Management Committee, he was responsible for restructuring the French chemicals industry in 1990. Between 1992 and 1994, he was President of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC)