Having worked for several years at Medef Calvados, Pascal Blanchard was elected president of Medef Calvados on January 20. Since 2022, he has held the position of vice-president of Medef Calvados.
Married, father of two children and aged 48, Pascal Blanchard is the general secretary of the Sofimari family group, which brings together Sofrilog (1,450 employees, €148 million in turnover), a specialist in refrigerated logistics and transport, and Sogena, key player in port and international logistics (550 employees, €85 million turnover). Both companies are headquartered in Caen. The group, which employs 2,000 people, is present throughout France, in Ivory Coast and Congo.
A graduate of Dauphine, ESSEC, Sorbonne and IAE Caen, Pascal Blanchard is also vice-president of the Club des ETI Normandie and a member of the departmental advisory council of the Banque de France.
Upsurge in collective procedures
For his first year as president, Pascal Blanchard wishes to continue the actions undertaken by his predecessor, Damien Charrier, CEO of Talenz Groupe Fidorg, who has just taken over as president of the National Council of the Order of Chartered Accountants. “Since June 2023, the economy has been on the decline with less full order books. We had numerous appeals at the end of the year for companies in difficulty, some forced to go into partial activity, and the court of commerce of Caen confirmed to us that there is an increase in collective procedures”, announces Pascal Blanchard who advises all business leaders “to anticipate difficulties and to meet the commercial court well in advance: there is conciliation procedures often unknown to business leaders, to be able, for example, to renegotiate loan maturities…”
Overcoming the isolation of the business manager
Medef Calvados, which has more than 300 members, continues its commitment to uniting companies around common projects, in particular by organizing more than 80 “value-added and friendly” events each year, with the objective of “creating links between local businesses and overcome the isolation of the business manager. “We also support companies in their digital, ecological and regulatory transitions, notably through the support of legal human resources advice,” adds the president.
In 2024, Medef Calvados launched two new structures that it intends to enrich and develop: the Comex 40 dedicated to business leaders under 40 and the Medef Women's club.
