Saint Gobain: Roberto Caliari has been appointed Senior Vice-President

He will personally head the Ceramics & Plastics Branch. He will report to Christian Streiff.

Aged 57, Roberto Caliari is Italian. With a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Milan Polytechnic, he joined the Group in 1973, first working for Balzaretti (Reinforcements Branch, Italy), where he was successively in charge of R&D, production, then management control. In 1986, he was appointed deputy managing director of

Vitrofil, before becoming General Manager of Vetrotex Italia in 1988. In 1991, he also took charge of Vetrotex Operations Europe, before being appointed Vetrotex Operations Director for Europe and Korea in 1993. He has been, since 1996, Director of the Reinforcements Branch and, since October 2001, General Delegate for Italy and Greece.

Américo Dénes is appointed Director of the Abrasives Branch. He will report to Roberto Caliari.

Américo Dénes, 51, Brazilian, graduated form the Engineering School of Sao Paulo in Brazil. From 1975 to 1995, he successively worked for Fabrica de Aços Paulista S/A in Brazil, SKF Brazil, then Sales Director for INA Schaeffler. He joined Saint-Gobain in 1995 as Managing Director Bonded Abrasives for South America. The following year, he was appointed Vice-President Abrasives for the whole of the South American region before adding, from 1999, the position of Managing Director for Thin Wheels. He came to France in June 2002, to head the Abrasives Europe division and become worldwide Director for Coated Abrasives.

Jean-Philippe Buisson is appointed Director of the Reinforcements Branch. He will report to Roberto Caliari.

Aged 37, Jean-Philippe Buisson is a former student of the Ecole Polytechnique, graduating as an engineer at Ponts et Chaussées. From 1991 to 1994, he was in charge of the Industrial Development Division at the DRIRE (Regional Department for Industry, Research and the Environment ) and Representative for the Prefect of the Region of Haute-Normandie. He was, from 1994 to 1997, in charge of the Pharmaceutical Industry for the DGSI (Department of Trade and Industry). Joining the Group at the end of 1997, he has successively been Financial and Industrial Policy Director for the Reinforcements Branch, Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Vetrotex Glass Mat, then General Manager for the Asia-Pacific Business Unit of Saint-Gobain Vetrotex International.

Saint-Gobain is continuing to internationalize its senior executive team by appointing Roberto Caliari, Italian, aged 57, thirty year’s industrial and international experience within Saint-Gobain, Américo Dénes, 51, Brazilian, Managing Director of Abrasives in Europe for the last two years and Jean-Philippe Buisson, 37, who has spent the last two years in Shanghai at the head of the Reinforcements Asia-Pacific Business Unit.