A tribute to Bruno Rochet
It is with deep sadness that the Lallemand team announced the sudden death of Bruno Rochet, on November 5th, 2009.
Bruno Rochet was Business Development Director for Lallemand Animal Nutrition and was responsible for the Asian market. The combination of his unique human qualities and business vision largely contributed to the development and success of Lallemand. He was also President of the European Probiotics Association (EPA), funded in 1999 at his insistence. Passionate and a visionary, Bruno Rochet was a convincing spokesman for probiotics in animal nutrition and he contributed greatly to their recognition. Bruno was married with four children. We will all miss Bruno and wish to pay him a tribute.
The numerous testimonials that followed his tragic death reflect Bruno’s human and professional qualities. His charisma, his brightness, his passion and contagious enthusiasm, his creativity, as well as his sense of humor and kindness have marked the lives of the many people who crossed his path, and Bruno will leave a void among his friends and colleagues, as well as in the industry.
Olivier Clech, Vice President Human and Animal Nutrition for Lallemand remembers: “Bruno always had an abundance of projects in mind, some of which seemed unlikely, but in the end, most of them succeeded and demanded respect, thanks to his faith and perseverance despite certain critics and polite smiles. Such as this idea, launched a few years back, to track down the benefits of probiotics all along the animal production chain down to the ham.”
Pascal Raoul, General Manager for Lallemand Animal Nutrition, explains: ”Bruno had a real talent to build bridges between people whose paths and interests seemed opposite, the manufacturer and the lawmaker, the businessman and the scientist, two players who appeared as competitors on paper… Bruno brought and held them together.” Olivier Clech added: “Over the past years, Bruno instigated some significant recruitments for our team: Mr. Raoul, who once was his successor with Elanco and with whom he had somehow come a full circle, or Yannig Le Treut, who was General Manager of a large French cooperative group at that time. Bruno was also close to scientists and researchers, Pr. J. Tournut years ago, Pr. J.F. Guillot, Pr. P. Bezille and many more.”
Yannig Le Treut, Commercial Director, continues: “ The recent ProbioMaS project, which he initiated, is the illustration of his ability to go beyond the beaten tracks and build bridges between different expertise: he had the idea to involve scientists from the Brittany Laboratory of materials engineering (LIMATB), specialized in biofilms, with the issues of pig liquid feeding, and he managed to consolidate players such as INZO°, Acemo and Noé around this project.”
Bruno Rochet joined Lallemand in 1998 as Marketing Director, after several years of collaboration with the group as General Manager of Prodeta, a Breton company that pioneered the usage of probiotics in animal nutrition. Before that, he worked for Elanco as Regional Engineer. Since 2003, Bruno was in charge of developing the company’s animal nutrition activities in Asia. He was also behind the development of probiotic applications for aquaculture, one of his numerous projects, which led last September to the first probiotic authorization in Europe for aquaculture.
Bruno was a true ambassador, always ready to travel the world to promote probiotics among the animal nutrition communities. In 1999, together with Bio-Armor, Lesaffre and Lohmann, he launched EPA, the European Probiotics Association, which he Chaired for the past ten years, as one of its most active members. He also initiated the Jules Tournut Prize. Bruno was a member of FEFANA (the EU Feed Additives and Premixtures Association) working group in charge of communicating about probiotics. Passionate about marketing, he was also teaching at the Animal Production Masters in Tours, where he himself graduated.
For those who wish to send a personal message to Bruno’s family, an e-mail address is available: bruno@lallemand.com.
