Irish businessman Paul Coulson is to step down as chairman of Ardagh Group next month, to be succeeded by current group director Herman Troskie.
Mr Coulson has been chairman of the glass and metal containers giant since 1998, leading its development from a single-plant glass operation in Dublin with annual revenue of approximately $50 million (€46.69 million), to a global supplier of in sustainable glass and metal packaging, operating across Europe, the Americas and Africa, with annualised revenues of more than $9 billion (€8.4 billion).
Before taking up the chairman role, Mr Coulson previously spent five years with Price Waterhouse in London and Dublin, later establishing his own accounting firm.
In 1980, he set up Yeoman International and developed it into a significant leasing and structured finance business.
The group has announced today the decision by Mr Coulson to step down as chairman of both Ardagh Group S.A., and its 76 per cent owned subsidiary Ardagh Metal Packaging S.A., on 15th November 2023.
The group said that the transition is the culmination of a succession process that, in recent years, has seen the appointments of Oliver Graham as chief executive of Ardagh Metal Packaging, and Michael Dick as chief executive of Ardagh Glass Packaging.
Mr Coulson’s successor Herman Troskie, who currently serves as a director of Ardagh Group, Ardagh Metal Packaging and ARD Holdings S.A. (the ultimate parent of Ardagh Group), will join Ardagh on a full-time basis in November.
Mr Troskie will step down from his current role as chief executive of Corporate, Legal and Tax Advisory at Stonehage Fleming, an international family office.
Having qualified as a South African attorney in 1997, and as a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales in 2001, he has extensive experience in the areas of international corporate structuring, cross-Border financing and capital markets, with a particular interest in integrated structuring for entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Based in Luxembourg, Mr Troskie has been a director of Ardagh Group since 2009, with the company saying he has been “closely involved with the growth and development of the group since then”.
Ardagh Group currently operates 63 metal and glass production facilities in 16 countries, employing more than 20,000 people.
