Guillaume Poitrinal

Guillaume Poitrinal (born 22 December 1967 in Châtellerault, Vienne) is a Franco–Luxembourgish entrepreneur and business leader.

From 2005 to 2013 he led Unibail‑Rodamco‑Westfield, becoming the youngest CEO of a CAC 40 company when the group joined the index in 2007.

In 2014 he co‑founded Woodeum with Philippe Zivkovic, a low‑carbon real‑estate developer specializing in cross‑laminated timber construction, and in 2017 launched WO2, a next‑generation low‑carbon office developer.

Also in 2014 he established Icamap, a European real‑estate investment fund which he still chairs.

Since 2017 he has served as President of the Fondation du patrimoine.

Early life and education

The son of a surgeon and a clinic director, Poitrinal completed his secondary studies and preparatory classes at Lycée Henri‑IV in Paris. He graduated from HEC Paris in 1989.

Career

He began as an analyst in Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions department from 1992 to 1995 in London and Paris. In 1995 Léon Bressler hired him at Unibail as Project Director. He became Director of Development and Planning in 1997, Chief Financial Officer and Head of the Offices division in 1998, and Deputy CEO in charge of all divisions and finance in 2002.

In April 2005 he succeeded Bressler as CEO and, on 27 April 2006, became Chairman and CEO of Unibail. Under his leadership, Unibail joined the CAC 40 on 18 June 2007, making him at age 39 the youngest head of a CAC 40 company.

On 25 June 2007 Unibail merged with Rodamco, creating a dual board structure and he became Chairman of Unibail‑Rodamco. He left the group on 25 April 2013; during his tenure the company quadrupled in size, its share price rose from €93 to €175, and total dividends of €80.3 per share delivered an annualized return of 15.1%, compared with +3.3% for the CAC 40 and +4.5% for the EPRA real‑estate index.

Later ventures

In 2014 he founded Woodeum and in 2017 WO2, pioneering low‑carbon timber construction. In June 2020, through Icamap and WO2, he launched Arboretum in Paris La Défense, the world’s largest timber office campus (126 000 m²).

In October 2013 President François Hollande appointed him to lead France’s simplification drive, a role he held until January 2015. He then chaired the “Planning and Construction” working group (2015–2017) to streamline business regulations. In February 2016 Île‑de‑France Regional President Valérie Pécresse named him Chairman of the Strategic Council for Attractiveness and Employment (2016–2018). In April 2017 he was appointed President of the Fondation du patrimoine.

Under President Emmanuel Macron he helped launch the “Loto du Patrimoine” public‑funded heritage lottery with the Ministry of Culture and La Française des Jeux.

Published works

• Leadership: Perspectives on Power in Business (preface by Erhard Friedberg), De Boeck, 2011
• Faster! France Ill with Its Own Pace, Grasset & Fasquelle, 2012, ISBN 978‑2‑246‑79991‑7
• Real Estate Tomorrow: Real Tech from Rentiers to Entrepreneurs (preface by GP), Dunod, 2017
• 100 Words of Heritage, Que Sais‑je?, 2021
• Beyond the Apocalypse: An Ecology of Action, Stock, 2022