Paul du Saillant is Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Deputy CEO) of EssilorLuxottica.
He earned his degree in Civil Engineering in 1982 from École Centrale Paris, one of France’s leading engineering schools. In 1986, he further expanded his leadership credentials by completing the Young Manager Program with distinction at INSEAD, one of the world’s top business schools.
Before joining Essilor in 2008, Paul du Saillant spent 20 years at Air Liquide, holding various operational and strategic leadership roles at group level, across businesses, geographies, and functions including R&D, engineering and IT.
From 2002 to 2007, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Belgian Group Lhoist.
Upon joining Essilor, Paul du Saillant was responsible for managing key businesses and corporate functions.
In July 2010, he was appointed Co-Chief Operating Officer of Essilor, overseeing major geographic zones (Europe, Asia and Latin America) and cross-functional global functions (Human Resources, R&D, industrial operations, transformation program IT, etc.).
In 2017, he took over leadership of Essilor’s Lens business.
He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Essilor in March 2020.
While maintaining his responsibilities at Essilor, Paul du Saillant was involved in the business combination between Essilor and Luxottica from January 2017. In close collaboration with Francesco Milleri and his teams, he worked on advancing the integration and the synergy plans of the two companies. He joined the Board of Director in 2020 and was appointed Deputy CEO of EssilorLuxottica in the same year.
In 2024, Paul du Saillant was presented with the insignia of the “Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur” by French president Emmanuel Macron.