Cargill Africa
Universal
SAP
HBO
Korkunov
Viasat
Altadis
A&D Pharma
Electro World
Altadis
Valeant
Dreamworks
GlaxoSmithKline
Valeo
General Electric
AES Corporation
Continental AG
TetraPak
Clarks
Hugo Boss
adidas
Cargill
FM Logistic
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18 April 2008
It is with pleasure that I respond to your request for a reference for the work that you have been doing for Cargill in West Africa region over the past year.
Farn Williams have been particularly successful with Cargill in West Africa, where we have struggled to find suitable candidates for roles in Ivory Coast. You are always able to locate the candidates in those arenas that most other Search Firms do not seem to be aware of and I believe that this is because of your excellent networking abilities.
I would specially refer to the last year hiring of our Ivory Coast controller, Nicholas Duret: you were able to hunt him far away from standard routes.
Your planning and follow-up is very good and you always keep us informed of progress and check back with us on a regular basis to ensure that we are still moving in the right direction.
We can certainly recommend you to future clients and would be happy to provide them with any verbal references if so desired.
Your sincerely,
Olivier Mignot
Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate
West Africa Human Resources/Finance Director
See Cargill Europe testimonial
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21 April 2008
It is with pleasure that I respond to your request for a reference for all the work you have been doing for Universal Music Group International.
I have successfully used Farn Williams to execute and deliver searches for a number of senior roles such as Managing Directors as well as Finance Directors in the Nordic, Central & Eastern European Region. This includes Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Greece and Universal Music's operations in territories that are highly strategic in terms of new growth and great potential for new areas of revenues. I found that in these markets having an Executive Search partner that you can trust, who is flexible and responsive, makes all the difference. Farn Williams were not only able to provide accurate and relevant shortlists on time and to brief, they also rapidly delivered crucial market intelligence reviews of the competition and related Broadcast Media sectors in mission critical markets. I found I was able to get exactly what I wanted, a shortlist of the best local talent who also demonstrated an international company culture and mindset.
Farn Williams have a very good understanding of the Music & Entertainment sector and have been able to identify which companies are doing well, which not so well, and to gain an inside understanding of their organisation charts and within these, which people would be willing to make a change. Moreover I greatly value the quick response and easy contact. Farn Williams are prepared to provide assistance beyond the scope of their activities if necessary, and their excellent networking in all territories is put at a client's disposal without limitations.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Jonathan Farn and Farn Williams for any mid to senior level Finance, Sales, Operations and General Management hires in the Entertainment Sector, and for their integrity, market knowledge, delivery and professionalism.
Vico Antippas
President, Central & Eastern Europe
Universal Music Group International
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Dubai, 7 April 2008
To whom it might concern,
In October 2007 SAP MENA (Middle East & North Africa) has asked Farn Williams to search for a Customer Engagement Manager for its newly acquired operation in the Middle East. We requested Stian Sangvig to conduct the search.
The position was filled with an excellent candidate within only 4 months.
Stian has worked very closely with the responsible manager in SAP to understand the requirements for the specifc role and during the execution of the search. He has also followed up professionally after the hiring.
All in all Farn Williams conducted this challenging search in a very professional and positive manner. During the complete search cycle, Farn Williams had the right tools and approaches in place to conduct the search professionally and in a very timely manner. During the search, Stian has in virtually no time developed a network and insight into this new territory, which allowed him to identify the best candidates and provide a solid short list. Stian has clearly shown the ability to convey the attractive offering to the candidates and discuss expectations with them. This allowed us to select the best candidate from a shortlist, where all candidates were suitable for the position.
We certainly recommend Farn Williams for similar - international and challenging - searches.
With best regards,
Martin Drogles
Field Services Director
SAP MENA
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To whom it might concern,
I engaged Farn Williams to recruit confidentially a new CFO for our Prague based business covering the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Adriatic region. The was a highly commercial role which required not only a very capable and qualified finance professional but a real business partner to our Regional Managing Director (who Farn Williams recruited for us in 2006) and the commercial teams. Farn Williams surpassed themselves, I knew they were fast, accurate and a pleasure to work with but I didn't expect to see not only such a strong shortlist that left me the luxury of being able to choose between very strong candidates, but also to be given the market information on who was earning what and how the Financial Organization structures were set up at other key multinational companies in Prague and the CEE region all of which was extremely useful. I would highly recommend Farn Williams for any mid to senior level searches where quality and speed are critical.
Kind regards,
Leonardo Guevara
CFO
HBO Central Europe
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Dear Jonathan,
I want to express our gratitude for the work you have done for us this year in placing our new Country Manager for Czech, Slovak and Adria, and for conducting our CTO search.
As you probably recall, I came to you with complaints about some of the larger recruitment firms and their "off the shelf" search solutions, which I feel often fall short of meeting client needs. I think FarnWilliams has been a great antidote to this. The approach has been more personal and I think you are excellent listeners about the real needs of your clients. I have also been extremely pleased with the depth of the work conducted prior to finalizing a short list of candidates. In both instances, there were mutliple candidates with excellent potential and a real choice to be made among them.
I would without hesitation recommend FarnWilliams in our region, and am confident that you will have great success in building your client base.
Sincerely,
Linda Jensen
CEO
HBO Central Europe
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Moscow, 1 August 2007
Starting from September 2006 was identified the need within the Group "A Korkunov" to strength the organization by recruiting a Group CFO.
This recruitment was an important challenge while the Company was eventually preparing to enter into negotiations with strategic investors.
Farn Williams was then appointed to search for the best candidate given that we needed the right person on board within 3 to 4 months maximum and that the candidate will join on a project basis given the potential change of shareholders.
The project was managed by Farn Williams with a very high level of commitment and extremely client oriented. This last point was an essential factor to ensure a success.
As a result, Farn Williams delivered a short list of 3 candidates after 3 months of which 2 were fitting all our requirements, demonstrating the professional cheeks. interviews and briefing conducted before hand by their team.
Finally, one of the candidates joined the Company and is today a key player of our organization.
Francois Esculier
CEO "A Korkunov"
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September 2007
We had a number of extremely difficult and high profile Director positions to fill at our TV station in the Czech Republic this year and you appointed Jonathan Brown, Farn Williams’s Central Europe Manager based in Prague, as our key contact. Jon also personally handled the searches.
Given both the difficult political and economic environment for media and the intensity of pressure on employers to retain and recruit top talent in the entertainment and media sector both within the Czech Republic and indeed across Europe, we were feeling anxious about the chances of finding what we needed.
Farn Williams were selected because of their long track record of success in Central, Eastern and Western Europe, particularly in executing and delivering cross border searches quickly and efficiently.
Indeed it was with some surprise that we began to see the quality of their network when we were able to access international as well as local talent from our competitors and related organisations within a shorter time frame than most local recruiting firms farming out the usual suspects that are trawling the open job market. Farn Williams clearly have access to many candidates that are not available to the normal recruiting firms and not only that, they were able to closely support us in attracting and retaining particularly high profile candidates that were hard to persuade to move.
MTG/Viasat are a very commercially driven organisation and this means we need people with a broad commercial perspective which none the less has to be balanced with the need for creative talent and flexibility in a professional, relaxed and incredibly high profile work environment. I think it is to Farn William’s credit that they understand this balance and can react in the way we need, going the extra mile to ensure we are not only covered in our recruitment and succession planning but that we enjoy the experience of meeting candidates and selecting our chosen hires.
I know they have also been working successfully with the London HQ of Viasat on international roles as well and I would not hesitate to recommend Farn Williams for any mid to senior level hires in Media and Entertainment where a truly professional international approach is needed.
Yours sincerely
Aleksandras Cesnavicius
CEO, TV Prima
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6 July 2007
Altadis is a leading international Tobacco and Logistics group with a portfolio of premium brand cigarettes and cigars, expanding globally.
In 2005 we were in the unenviable position of having bought a sizeable and prestigious subsidiary in Russia that was of vital strategic importance to our market footprint, but for which we did not have a CEO, a CFO nor a permanent HRD.
We needed ex-pats with fluent Russian for the former two hires and a local with an international profile and culture and strong industrial relations for the HR.
After an unsuccessful search from a global recruiting firm, we engaged Farn Williams to rescue the mission. Frankly, I was initially surprised by your strong local network.
With your help, we quickly secured our ex-pat CFO, as well as a highly credible German Russian speaker for our CEO, from a major global FMCG Group. Thanks to you, we also found the perfect HRD, a Russian Industrial HR Director with western cultural adaptability, experienced in industrial relations, communication up and down the chain (management and blue collar) and motivated for our mission.
Farn Williams are not cheap, but in my experience when you have a business problem, you want the best and price should not be the issue, we would use the best advisers for legal and due diligence, and I can recommend Farn Williams in my experience, as the best advisers in HR solutions and Executive Search.
Bruno Germain-Thomas
Chief Operating Officer
Business Unit Cigarettes
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5 July 2007
We are very pleased with the support and outcome of the search we conducted with you and executed by Jonathan Brown.
The approach taken was creative and very well targeted with a number of excellent candidates presented to us in a very short span of time. We were, in fact, faced with the unusual situation of having to pick 2 candidates from a number of excellent candidates, any one of which would have been the right one. Having worked with a number of search firms in the past, I can say this has never happened.
It clearly demonstates that Jonathan and your firm, clearly understood our mandate and found a good pool of candidates to choose from. We also appreciated the communication, support and follow-up.
Should there be further requirements on our side, we will contact you regarding them as well.
Charles A Gloor
Interim Executive Director
A&D Pharma
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21 December 2006
I would like to confirm that we have co-operated with Farn Williams International Search represented by Mr. Jonathan Brown, Manager Central & Eastern Europe in executive search for a position of Finance Manager for Electro World Hungary.
We highly appreciate the whole process of co-operation, especially due to the fact, that we were under time pressure for covering this key position for our Hungarian operation. I would like to highlight very professional approach, frequent communication with us, quick reaction in reference checking and effective and careful support in the final step of the recruitment. We have managed the whole search and recruitment process within one month, November 2006.
This experience has definitely proved intention of both sides to build a trustful long-term partnership.
Martin Znamenácek
HR Director Central Europe
Prague
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20 July 2006
In response to your request for a reference, I should like to state that we have been using the services of Farn Williams (FW) since early 2005.
The Altadis Group, quoted on both the Madrid and Paris stock exchanges, with almost 30,000 employees worldwide, and three strong lines of business: cigars (world number one), cigarettes (number four company in Europe) and logistics (majority stakeholder in Logista, S.A., also quoted on the Madrid stock exchange) is in constant expansion. It is therefore vital for us to place key people in our newly acquired subsidiaries in Europe, the Russian Federation and North Africa.
We have successfully used FW in locating top managers for several companies of the Altadis Group. It was our experience that local firms did not possess the know-how and the networking to produce satisfactory key managers, whereas FW, thanks to its truly international search network, was able to do the job.
We have found FW to be efficient and swift in localizing candidates and also genuinely concerned as to our feedback on candidates presented for interview in order to learn from experience and ensure we are still moving in the right direction. We will continue to use the services of FW as our Group continues to develop.
Yours sincerely,
José María Bru Huelves
VP Corporate Top Talent
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We are very pleased with the two candidates (performance-wise as well as concerning their fit with the GE company culture). Both have made already a significant change to the organization by pro-actively looking into process improvements as well as organizational changes that would increase our productivity even more. Both integrated very easily and established already a good reputation and cooperation with different stakeholders.
Regarding the recruiting process, Farn Williams has been of great support in developing a solid short-list of candidates, coordinating the interviews and updating us as well as the candidates on a regular basis. We very much appreciated your coaching on compensation packages and benefits up to the offer letter stage.
Overall, it was an excellent coordination and support for all parties involved.
Andrea Euenheim
GE Commercial Finance
Fleet Services
HR Leader Germany & Switzerland
I have worked with Jonathan Farn over the last 3 months on a couple of major assignments. Though the relationship is a new one I have found his market knowledge, search penetration and relationship Management with myself to be excellent. I know he is interested in developing his GE network further and I would endorse you opening your door to him.
He has successfully recruited 3 senior level candidates for GE Commercial Finance in 2005 (Country General Manager, Germany and European Commercial Director, and European Sourcing Leader).
Matt Collington
European HR Leader
GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services
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20 February 2006
I have been working with Farn Williams since February 2005 and have successfully recruited two General Managers in the Central and Eastern Europe region.
Farn Williams was initially retained to recruit our new General Manager Baltic States, based Riga. The shortlist delivered included qualified and motivated candidates from both Lithuania and Latvia. All 5 short-listed for interview could have done the job. It was excellent to be in the strong position of having two candidates to choose from, both meeting interpersonal and professional skills criteria.
Following the success of this search, Farn Williams conducted a second crucial search for us in the Moscow market. The General Manager Russia search needed to be confidential, rapid and aggressive to find the right talent we were looking for. Additionally, it was vital to find properly screened candidates, and to have adequate coverage of the market to ensure we were in a position of being able to choose from several different candidates. Farn Williams produced a very accurate shortlist allowing Valeant to hire our preferred candidate, meeting our internal deadlines and goals. The follow up and responsiveness was also very much in line with our expectations as a fast growing multinational operating in some highly competitive markets. Farn Williams also gave us confidence in handling the process sensitively and thoroughly, including helping our candidate with resignation preparation and smooth transitioning to Valeant.
I am looking forward to working again in the future with Farn Williams.
With kind regards
Dr. David J. Smith
Director Export, Central and Eastern Europe
Valeant Pharmaceuticals Switzerland GmbH
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November 29, 2005
Dear Jonathan,
I want to commend you and your team on the great job you did recruiting the two finance positions for DreamWorks Home Entertainment in London.
The International Finance Director and Senior Financial Analyst positions were both filled with candidates of the highest caliber. The process was smooth and efficient, especially considering I was managing the recruitment from Los Angeles.
Thank you for the great work and support.
Kind regards,
Mike Weetman
CFO
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Not only was the search extremely broad and comprehensive (backed up with a full search report outlining which companies were called, market intelligence and so on) but also Jonathan Brown added real value in being engaging and persuasive in all dealings with candidates. The result was that the very best off market candidates, those that were not actively looking for a new role, were presented and brought to the table to discuss the opportunity. Our new Finance Director comes with the right mix of professional and soft skills, backed up with solid international experience in Western Europe. The shortlist was delivered on budget, on brief and on time and we are looking forward to working with Jonathan Brown and Farn Williams again in the near future as our search partner.
Daina Vaitiekuniene
Human Resources Director Baltic States
GlaxoSmithKline
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Farn Williams have been particularly successful with VALEO in difficult or critical hires at mid to senior level - in Production, Operations, Finance, Purchasing, Sales, and General Management - where we have struggled to find good candidates for roles in Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
As well Farn Williams provided an excellent service for local to local recruitments in France, Germany, Spain and Eastern Europe. Indeed it was initially with surprise that we found your delivery and penetration of the French and German markets was much superior to the local recruiting firms that are operating in their home country.
I think this is because you use a highly maintained international network so you know all the good people who work outside their home country on assignments, as well as those inside the country. And it is great that many of these candidates are still in our employment and many of them have gone on to larger roles. You are always able to locate candidates in places that most other Search Firms don't seem to be aware of and I believe that this is because of your excellent networking abilities.
In the last year we have also been working with you on key roles in the OEM as well as Aftermarket side of our business and you have been successful at locating both interesting and unique individuals and again you have stretched your networks to bring us in a broader range of people.
Your planning and follow-up is very good and you always keep us informed of progress and check back with us on a regular basis to ensure that we are still moving in the right direction. We can for sure recommend you to future clients and would be happy to provide them with any verbal references if so desired.
Yours sincerely
Orazio Ragni
Vice President, Valeo
Electrical Systems Branch
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I first used Farn Williams in 2000 for the recruitment of a high level Finance Professional for an overseas assignment; I was very pleased with the high quality of the candidates put forward by the company and the professional way in which they helped facilitate the evaluation and selection process.
In late 2002 I found myself with an urgent need to recruit a Senior Person to head up a large power sales and marketing organisation with sales in excess of £450m per annum, due to my previous good experience with Farn Williams I approached them first. The request I had was to come up with a very tight and qualified short list of candidates within a short period of time. Given the specialist and close knit nature of the industry the search had to be conducted with the utmost discretion but also speed. This involved daily communications between me and Farn Williams.
A high quality group of candidates was found within the required timeframe and after a thorough interview and reference checking process a candidate put forward by Farn Williams was hired into the position.
6 months after the hire I can say I am very happy with the hire and with the service provided by Farn Williams.
Garry Levesley
Vice President
AES Corporation
Note: Additional Referees in AES at EMEA level available for 2005/2006 searches
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It is with great pleasure that I respond to your request for a reference:
Farn Williams were retained by Continental AG, Hannover, Germany to fill three vacant positions for our strategic manufacturing operations in Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Ideally we wanted to hire experienced managers with local knowledge and international (western European) experience, yet nationals of the respective countries. As at least two of our factories are located in rather remote areas, the difficult locations added to the complexity of the search. From an extensive target list of manufacturing companies that included competitor automotive suppliers, Farn Williams ensured they contacted all possible target companies, moving from an impressive longlist to an accurate shortlist, from which we were able to hire our chosen candidate for each role.
I was extremely happy with the service, with the execution of the search, with the shortlist provided and can say that I received a perfect result, I got exactly what I wanted and was able to hire three local candidates in the local organisations for the position of Financial Director, Slovakia, Country HR Manager, Romania and Country HR Manager, Czech Republic.
In the event of future needs I would for sure be happy to use Farn Williams again for any mid to senior level Finance, HR or Sales/Management roles that needed executing quickly and efficiently.
Dr. Andreas Thomaschewski
Human Resources
Car & Commercial Tire Divisions
Continental AG
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Jonathan clearly has a really detailed knowledge of accounting and accountancy processes - I think he may be a qualified accountant himself anyway - and he understands about all the types of roles that there are in a Shared Service Centre. This is a real advantage because if you are talking to accountants you can at least get a proper understanding of what they can do and what they have done.
I was impressed with Jonathan's diligence and effort - nothing was too much trouble - and he even kept in touch with me over his Christmas vacation from the beach in the Bahamas. He will put long hours in to get the job done so you can feel confident that he will be committed to your cause.
Farn Williams are experienced in Shared Services but as a result of the job he did for us Jonathan and his team have gained even more experience of Shared Services and of course their knowledge of the market place is bang up to date. That is both the UK and abroad.
Based in London was not an issue for us (we are in Manchester) and it certainly didn't stop Jonathan finding candidates for us. I would emphasise though I feel it is important for the Head Hunter to meet the candidates before producing a short list and in your case Jonathan being in London and living near to Heathrow as he does is a distinct advantage. I would encourage you to get Jonathan to visit your shared Service Centre to get a really good feel for the place - he came to have a look around here and that was particularly helpful. Also he met those that were to be involved in the interview process and was able to establish a relationship with my HR manager too - this was helpful as it meant the process could be kept going even if I wasn't here and he could also let the candidates know a little bit more about what to expect when they met us.
Personally Jonathan is a well informed and well read man. He will challenge you if he feels you are making a mistake and will do his best to get you the best possible result. He has a good sense of humour and is fun to deal with.
I guess the acid test is 'would I use him again?' and without question my answer to that would be very positive.
I hope this gives you the information you require and I would be happy to talk around any of the points I have made or any others you feel you would like to discuss.
Phil Lambert
Director Shared Service Centre
TetraPak
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It has been a pleasure to work with Farn Williams and we have been very pleased with the pace of service and the professionalism which we encountered.
The quality of candidates presented to us was of a particularly high standard and at no point during the whole process, were we concerned that Farn Williams were not completely confident in what they were doing. This must be one of the best experiences I have ever had with a head hunter and we hope to build an even better relationship with the company in the future.
Thank you very much for your help, a job well done and in perfect time – nice to finally come across an agency who can work to a deadline.
Natasha Cragg
Recruitment Manager (Central HR)
Clarks International
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Even if at the end, we didn’t choose any of their candidates, I have to highly recommend the headhunter Farn Williams from London for future positions in Finance. Farn-Williams provided us with an outstanding service and very accurate advice. They were fast, efficient, service minded, always available and seem to be specialized in Finance, Accounting, and Controlling search. Farn-Williams was way above the two other international headhunters that we used.
Briac Pinault
General Director Hugo Boss Espana
Hugo Boss
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This is to express my sincere gratitude to Farn Williams for their professionalism and high standard of work. I was impressed by their professional approach to the position evaluation and candidates screening. They do not provide many candidates to the requested position, but due to their ability to “feel” company requirements they select proper candidates and it is even difficult for the company to make a choice among equally professional candidates.
I will not hesitate to address Far Williams in case adidas CIS has any top level opening I will not hesitate to contact this highly professional company.
Maria Bobkova
HR & Administration Director
adidas CIS
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It is with pleasure that I respond to your request for a reference for all the work that you have been doing for Cargill over the last 10 years.
Farn Williams have been particularly successful with Cargill where we have struggled to find suitable candidates for roles in Africa and Eastern Europe and it is to your credit that most of these candidates are still in our employ and many of them have gone on to larger roles. You are always able to locate the candidates in those arenas that most other Search Firms don't seem to be aware of and I believe that this is because of your excellent networking abilities.
In the last year we have also been working with you for roles outside of our traditional developing country arenas and you have been successful at locating both interesting and unique individuals and again you have stretched your networks to bring us in a broader range of people.
Your planning and follow-up is very good and you always keep us informed of progress and check back with us on a regular basis to ensure that we are still moving in the right direction.
We can certainly recommend you to future clients and would be happy to provide them with any verbal references if so desired.
Margaret J Studer
VP Human Resources Europe
See Cargill West Africa testimonial
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FM Logistic has been working with Farn Williams International Search as top management recruitment partner in several countries since more than one year and has always been satisfied with the level of services and relations, as well as with the commitment of Farn Williams in participating to FM Logistic development.
Having an urgent need to re-build our top-management organization in Romania and Czech Republic, FM Logistic proposed to Farn Williams to help it in this task, relying on expertise, as well as on the strong experience of Farn Williams in the problematic of Central Europe Countries.
After few months of partnership and several missions, in spite of the very short timing, the targeted goal is reached, thanks to the high communication between our common teams.
We can only say that we are very satisfied with our decision to work with Farn Williams and emphasize their professionalism and commitment.
We are extremely glad to recommend Farn Williams as a reliable partner for your recruitment Projects.
Yann Belgy
Romania General Manager
Gérard Pineau
Central Europe General Manager
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