Our executive team provide strong leadership and strategic direction for Solevo. Their experience, dedication and commitment to enabling growth across Africa underpins our ability to best serve and empower customers and communities across the continent.
Our Executive Team
- Matthieu Van Brée, Business Line Director Chemicals
- Franck Chabert, Business Line Director Agro
- Michel Coulibaly, Group Director Operations and Supply Chain
- Jean Daniel Littler, Group Director Human Capital and Legal
- Abel Mandengue, Managing Director Cameroon
- Ferdinand Mouko, Managing Director Cote d’Ivoire
Joris Coppye
After 2 years as a member and chairman of the Board of Directors, Joris Coppye was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Solevo in June 2020. He reports to the Board of Directors.
Joris has a strong business and financial background, a business development mindset and extensive change management experience. He was the former CEO and co-founder of Incendin and had executive roles in Common Ground Corporate Finance, Azelis, Sibeco Group, KBC bank and Imec.
Joris is a Belgian national and brings extensive experience in the chemicals sector.
Ownership
Previously a branch of Louis Dreyfus Commodities and under the ownership of Helios Investment Partners and Temasek between 2017-2023, Solevo was acquired by Africa-focused private equity firm Development Partners International (DPI) in April 2023.
London-based DPI has been investing in African companies since 2007 and is one of the most active private equity investors across the African continent, with approximately US$3 billion in assets under management and co-investments across three funds.
The investment in Solevo was made from African Development Partners III (ADP III); a private equity fund advised by DPI. DPI’s third fund, ADP III, was chosen as the first 2X Flagship Fund as part of the global 2X Challenge, committing to integrating a gender lens into its investment process, and reflecting DPI’s long-standing commitment to gender equity.
DPI’s partnership will help us to accelerate our scaling in new geographies, expand the firm’s portfolio of specialty chemicals across key sectors and implement digital transformation.
We are working closely with our DPI colleagues on a new digitalisation and technology strategy to drive greater efficiencies across Solevo’s extensive distribution platform.
We are also collaborating to advance a comprehensive ESG and Impact across the firm, to ensure that sustainability is embedded across the company’s operations and supply chains, as Solevo increases its commitment to be part of the solution to solve critical development challenges such as food-security.
