CD&R appoints

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has appointed Olivier Cognet, former director of corporate strategic business development for Cisco Systems in Europe, to its London team. Cognet brings a broad range of experience gained while working in research and development, sales, marketing and business development posts at Cisco, which he joined in 1994 as a technical consultant. At Cisco, Cognet worked with CD&R operating executives to drive strategic business development and technology strategies and to identify business synergies at Italtel, a leading provider of telecommunications equipment, software and services and an CD&R investee company.

In addition to Italtel, Cognet will work across CD&R’s entire portfolio and will identify and assess investment candidates, in particular in the telecommunications and technology industries.