on september 29, 2014, gérard deman, director and strategy advisor of china national bluestar (group) co., ltd and ceo of adisseo was awarded 2014 chinese government friendship prize and invited to beijing for the awarding ceremony.
the chinese government friendship award, organized by the state administration of foreign experts affairs, is the top national prize dedicated to foreign experts working in china as a sign of gratitude and commendation for their great contribution and devotion to the economic, social, technological, educational, and cultural development of china, as well as the cultivation of talents. as an annual prize, it is awarded to 100 people this time.
being an outstanding entrepreneur, gérard deman developed and implemented a series of business process reconstruction projects when in his capacity of adisseo ceo. covering production, supply chain, and commercial operation, the projects helped adisseo reduce its cost by eur35 million. after adisseo was acquired by bluestar in 2006, gérard was appointed as ceo and strategy advisor of adisseo and helped the company overcome difficulties such as rising material prices caused by the high oil price and continuous euro appreciation with his effective management strategy. as the first french chemical company to be merged by a central enterprise in china, adisseo saw huge improvement in its business performance after the acquisition. its sales revenue rose by more than two times and the corporate value grew by 750%. it served as a successful example for the international m&a in the going global campaign of chinese enterprises.
gérard has worked as chairman of adisseo’s board of directors since 2010. he led and participated in the phase i and phase ii capacity building programs of adisseo. in particular, he led the 140,000-ton methionine/a project in nanjing, filling a technical gap in china.
meanwhile, as a member of the board of directors and the strategy committee of bluestar, gérard made remarkable contributions to bluestar’s development with his rich management experience. in 2013, great progress was made in the bluestar overseas funding pool project, ensuring sufficient monitoring over the cash flow of the company to manage global operational risks in a unified manner and promote fund use efficiency, and applying the same interest rate for deposits and loans of the same currency to reduce exchanges and swaps and achieve the lowest possible financing cost. thus, the funds of the five bluestar overseas companies are kept safe with high liquidity and low costs. this is an outstanding contribution to bluestar.