François d’Hautefeuille is an expert in business law and mergers and acquisitions, fields in which he has worked for over 25 years, first as a solicitor in leading international law firms, and subsequently as General Counsel and Head of Compliance within global groups.

A graduate of the University of Paris II-Assas in Business and Tax Law, the Paris Institute of Business Law, and HEC Paris, François d’Hautefeuille was admitted to the Bar in 2001. He began his career with Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Paris before joining Gide Loyrette Nouel, where he practised for over ten years, both in France and in Asia. Based first in Beijing and then in Ho Chi Minh City, he advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and financing transactions in China, Vietnam, and South-East Asia. As Head of Gide’s Ho Chi Minh City office from 2007 to 2010, he developed the local team and oversaw major projects in the energy, hospitality, and infrastructure sectors.

In 2012, he joined Bureau Veritas in Paris as Vice-President, M&A and Business Law. There, he led a specialist team focused on acquisitions and oversaw more than 50 external growth operations, ranging from targeted transactions to large-scale deals. He was also involved in international financing projects and in establishing governance and compliance mechanisms within a listed group.
Since 2016, François d’Hautefeuille has served as Group General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer of Mérieux NutriSciences, where he is a member of the Executive Committee and Secretary to the Board of Directors. Heading an international team of over twelve lawyers, he supports the Group’s development in its internal and external growth projects. His responsibilities cover mergers and acquisitions (with more than twenty-five transactions completed), financing, governance, commercial contracts, the compliance programme, litigation management, and the insurance programme. He is also a member of the company’s Investment Committee and Audit Committee. He has initiated and led an ambitious digital transformation plan for the Legal and Compliance function, aimed at integrating artificial intelligence into contract review, document management, and compliance control processes.

Most recently, François d’Hautefeuille led, together with his teams, the acquisition by Mérieux NutriSciences of Bureau Veritas’s food testing activities in fifteen countries. This large-scale international project illustrates his ability to orchestrate complex cross-border transactions.