Claude Tessier, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., plans to retire at the beginning of next month. The convenience-store company has appointed Filipe Da Silva, senior vice president finance, as executive vice president and CFO to succeed Tessier on July 1. Tessier will stay on with Couche-Tard for a transition period to assist Da Silva to ensure a smooth and seamless transition.
At Canadian grocer Sobeys Inc., Tessier (left) was president of the IGA operations business unit since 2012. He joined IGA in 2003 as vice president of finance and strategic planning for Sobeys Québec. Prior to his position with IGA, Tessier served more than 15 years as senior financial leadership experience with Fly Furniture, Provigo and Costco, including in CFO and vice president roles. He has also held management positions in Mallette International and PricewaterhouseCoopers, formerly Coopers & Lybrand.
Da Silva (right) started his career in 1999 with TotalEnergies, the French energy conglomerate, in Argentina, then in 2003 joined the Carrefour group where he worked in Buenos Aires, Colombia, India and Indonesia. In 2013, he joined Groupe Exito, one of South America’s largest big-box retailers, whose largest shareholder was the French retail giant, Casino. Filipe then in 2016 joined Walmart’s Central America subsidiary as CFO to later become Walmart Canada’s CFO.
“Filipe has already proved himself as a trusted leader in the organization since joining in March 2023 and has spent much time learning the business from Claude. We have full confidence in Filipe, along with our experienced and highly capable finance team, and we expect the seamless transition between the two roles to be transparent for financial markets. I want to thank him for taking on this mandate, and I look forward to working with Filipe in his new capacity,” said Brian Hannasch, president and CEO of Couche-Tard.
“Claude led us through a period of significant growth, a five-year strategic plan and many important milestones. Over his years of service, with his steadfast and visionary leadership, Claude has contributed immensely to the success of Couche-Tard, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” said Hannasch.
“While there is never an opportune time for senior executive changes, the transition is occurring at the end of [Alimentation Couche-Tard’s] five-year ‘double again’ financial framework, with the next five-year plan set to be unveiled in October at its investor day in the U.S.,” said Chris Li, managing director of equity research at Desjardins, Montreal. “Given [Alimentation Couche-Tard’s] strong culture of succession and financial discipline, we believe Mr. Da Silva should be a good fit, especially given his extensive international retail and financial experience.”
- Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2023 ranking in June.
Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard’s 24-country global c-store network includes more than 7,100 in the United States, primarily under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners. Couche-Tard’s total worldwide network consists of approximately 14,300 mostly Circle K-branded c-stores.
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