Trudy Schoolenberg co-opted as Independent Director of SPIE SA

Paris, 8 November 2021 – The Board of Directors of SPIE SA announces the co-optation of Trudy Schoolenberg as Independent Director. She will replace Tanja Rueckert who is leaving her post after four years on the Group’s Board of Directors. A resolution ratifying her co-optation will be proposed at the next General Meeting on May 11, 2022.

Dutch national, 63-year old Trudy Schoolenberg has a master’s degree in engineering and a PhD in physics from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Trudy began her career with Shell in 1989 as a project manager and went on to take on various R&D responsibilities within the group. In 2003, Trudy Schoolenberg was appointed Production Manager at the Pernis refinery in the Netherlands, the largest refinery in Europe and one of the largest in the world. Following her appointment as General Manager Strategy and Portfolio at Shell Chemicals in 2008, Trudy joined Wärtsilä, a Finnish group specialising in onshore and marine energy production systems, in 2010, as Vice President of Global R&D.

From 2011 to 2020, Trudy Schoolenberg also sat on a number of boards of directors, including those of COVA (The Netherlands Petroleum Stockpiling Agency), Spirax-Sarco (FTSE 100 engineering business) and Low & Bonar (performance materials). In 2013, she was asked to take up her most recent executive position at Akzo Nobel, where she headed up the R&D and Manufacturing departments of one of the group’s divisions until 2016.

Gauthier Louette, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SPIE, said “We are pleased to welcome Trudy Schoolenberg to our Board of Directors. She brings with her a wealth of experience of working in technical companies and a rich career in the energy sector. I would sincerely like to thank Tanja Rueckert for the digital expertise she brought to SPIE and her extremely valuable contribution to the work of the Board of Directors and CSR & Governance Committee over the past four years.”

Trudy Schoolenberg will also join the SPIE SA Board of Director’s CSR & Governance Committee.