Christophe Laval is a graduate of the Institute d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and has a degree in law from the Université Paris Panthéon Sorbonne.

 

He joined the Schlumberger Group in 1985 and held various human resource positions culminating as the Human Resource Director for the Europe Division, Water and Thermal Energy.

 

From 1994 to 1996, Christophe served as the Human Resource Director for Quaker Oats France. He then joined Yoplait, the second largest producer of dairy products in the world, as Director of HR and Communication, just as the company began expanding into global markets.

 

In June 2001, Christophe joined Compass Group, a world leader in catering, as Human Resource Director and was responsible for their 34,000 employees in Western Europe. He created the strategic HR plan and implemented a new enterprise wide employee recognition program. He was then appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Compass Group’s Healthcare and Education French subsidiary, a company with €460M in sales and 7500 employees. This appointment was followed with a promotion to Human Resource Vice President of Compass Group Europe with 100,000 employees.

 

In early 2006, Christophe was appointed the CEO of Entreprise & Personnel, the largest HR association in France with over 150 member companies (including half of the CAC 40 companies) employing more than 2.5 million employees.

 

Christophe earned the distinction of becoming Recognition Professionals International’s first European Certified Recognition Professional. He was also certified as "A Trainer of Trainers in Recognition" by the University of Laval in Quebec, Canada.

 

In 2008 he authored "A Plea for Recognition in Workplace". Christophe is the Founder and President of VPHR, an international firm dedicated to employee recognition in the workplace. His clients include many organizations in the public and private sectors including GDF Suez, the French Post Office, Clear Channel, Medtronic, Levi's, the Bank of France, Embraer, the French Air Force as well as Entreprises Sociales pour l’ Habitat and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon.

 

Christophe is bilingual and is married to Martine. They have two children, Kevin and Alice, and reside in Paris, France.