Paris, 21 October, 2002._ Cathy Kopp has been appointed Corporate Human
Resources General Manager of Accor, replacing Volker Büring, who is leaving the
position. Ms. Kopp will report to John Du Monceau, Member of the Management Board
in charge of Services, Human Resources and Sustainable Development, and will work
in close cooperation with the Chairman and the members of the Management Board.
Volker Büring, Accor`s Corporate Human Resources General Manager for 13 years,
will be pursuing opportunities as a human resources and organization consultant, his
occupation before joining the Group. In this new capacity, he will maintain ties with
Accor and provide advisory services in areas where his experience and knowledge will
be valuable for the Group. Mr. Büring will remain Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
Accor Hotels Germany.
Cathy Kopp, formerly Group Vice President, Human Resources with the LVMH Group,
spent most of her career at IBM.
After obtaining master`s degrees in mathematics, Ms. Kopp joined IBM France in 1973
as a technical sales engineer. After holding a number of operational positions, she
moved into human resources in 1990 as Director of Employees, Managers and
Executive Education at IBM Europe, a position that gave her career international
scope. After returning to IBM France as Director of Human Resources for France, she
was appointed Vice President Human Resources for a division of IBM Corporation in
California, and in 1998 was appointed Vice President Global Employee Relations
Human Resources for the IBM Corporation, which at the time had 320,000 employees
worldwide. After returning to directly operational functions at IBM Europe, Ms. Kopp
was named Country General Manager for France, then Chairman of IBM France in
2001.
With 147,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of the world`s
largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major international activities:
- hotels: 3,800 hotels (425,000 rooms) in 90 countries, casinos, travel agencies, and
restaurants;
- services to corporate clients and public institutions: each day, 13 million people in 32
countries use a broad range of services (food vouchers, people care and services,
incentive, loyalty programs, events) engineered and managed by Accor.
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