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London, 7th September 2022 — Spendesk, the 7-in-1 spend management solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has announced the appointment of Julien Lafouge as its Group Chief Financial Officer.
Lafouge will oversee finance and legal for the Group as part of the Spendesk executive team – as the company continues its rapid expansion across Europe. He will also represent the community of financial decision makers “CFO Connect", which was created by Spendesk and has more than 8,500 members worldwide.
Spending the first part of his career at Technip, a technology provider to the energy industry, Lafouge held positions as Group Financial Controller, Financial Director of a subsidiary in Angola, and Internal Audit Manager.
After an MBA at INSEAD, Lafouge joined the Boston Consulting Group in 2007 and worked in the strategy consulting sector in Europe and South America until 2015. He advised senior management of technology and engineering companies in various sectors such as energy, telecoms and aerospace. In 2015, Lafouge joined BlaBlaCar — the leading French car sharing platform — to launch its business in Brazil and Mexico. He then served as CFO of BlaBlaCar Group from 2017 to 2021, before joining EMPG, a UAE-based real estate portal.
Commenting on his appointment, Lafouge said: “I am very happy and proud to join the Spendesk executive team. Spendesk provides the best solutions to enable companies to improve the management and control of their expenses and to achieve massive productivity gains. Beyond the finance function, using Spendesk frees all employees from tedious tasks, while improving the management and control of all business spending. I look forward to putting my energy, financial skills, and experience to work for such an innovative company.”
Rodolphe Ardant, CEO and co-founder of Spendesk, added: "The role of finance leaders has changed dramatically. In addition to excellent financial management, particularly in terms of costs and internal control, CFOs must now also look outside the company, whether it be to investors, customers, partners, or potential acquisitions to accelerate growth.
“Furthermore, in addition to producing and analysing past figures, the finance function must look to and model the future. Julien perfectly embodies this evolution of the profession. I am convinced that his experience and skills will be essential assets to support the evolution of our company. With Julien's arrival, we continue to structure ourselves to best respond to the challenges of our clients.”
About Spendesk
Spendesk is designed to save time and money across the entire spending process with 100% visibility and built-in automation. Ultimately, businesses that use Spendesk empower finance teams to gain valuable time to invest in strategic topics to grow the business. Founded in 2016, Spendesk is now trusted by thousands of businesses from start-ups to established brands, such as Algolia, Soundcloud, Curve, Doctolib, Gousto, Raisin, Sezane, Wefox. Spendesk-backed CFO Connect is the fastest-growing global community of finance leaders with more than 8,500 members.