There is no publicly established business, board, investment, family or employment relationship between Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes. The two names have appeared together in recent online comparison articles, but no authoritative public record cited for this profile documents a direct partnership or shared corporate event.
They are, however, significant business figures in their own fields. Rodolphe Saadé is the Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM, the Marseille-based shipping and logistics group. Gregory J. Hayes, commonly known as Greg Hayes, is the former chief executive of United Technologies and RTX. As of October 1, 2026, Hayes is no longer an RTX executive; he serves as Lead Independent Director of Phillips 66 and as a director of Becton, Dickinson and Company.
Are Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes connected?
No direct connection between the two men is publicly established.
A September 22, 2026 article from Orbit News asked whether they had a business connection but did not document a deal, shared board role or partnership. A later comparison article also placed their names together without identifying an underlying joint event. Those pages help explain why the names may now appear together in search results, but they do not establish a relationship.
That distinction matters. Their careers can be compared because both have led large, capital-intensive international businesses, but comparison is not evidence that their careers intersected personally.
Who is Rodolphe Saadé?
Rodolphe Saadé was born in Lebanon in 1970 and studied at Concordia University in Montreal. Concordia identifies him as a 1994 Bachelor of Commerce graduate, while CMA CGM’s corporate biography says he studied business and marketing.
Before joining CMA CGM, Saadé founded a business selling water dispensers. He entered CMA CGM in 1994 and spent the following years working through different parts of the shipping operation.
From 1997 to 2000, he managed several shipping lines before taking responsibility for transatlantic and transpacific services. His rise through the company later included a significant role during CMA CGM’s 2009-10 financial restructuring.
By 2010, Saadé had become Vice Chairman and a member of the company’s board.
NOL, the OCEAN Alliance and the path to the top job
Saadé’s responsibilities expanded substantially during the following decade. CMA CGM credits him with leading its tender offer for Neptune Orient Lines, or NOL, and with leading negotiations that created the OCEAN Alliance, a major container-shipping cooperation agreement.
His succession at CMA CGM happened in two stages.
On February 7, 2017, Saadé was appointed chief executive officer while his father, Jacques Saadé, remained Chairman. CMA CGM announced the appointment the following day in its 2017 CEO succession statement.
On November 24, 2017, CMA CGM’s board appointed Rodolphe Saadé Chairman and CEO, combining the two roles. The company recorded that change in a separate governance announcement.
How CMA CGM expanded under Saadé
Saadé’s tenure has included a push beyond traditional container shipping into logistics and air freight.
In 2019, CMA CGM completed its tender offer for CEVA Logistics, expanding its position in supply-chain and logistics services. In 2021, the group launched its air-freight operation, further broadening its transportation business.
By 2026, CMA CGM was still operating at large global scale. In its second-quarter 2026 results, the company reported revenue of $15.7 billion, EBITDA of $3.0 billion and 6.3 million TEUs transported during the quarter.
Those are company figures, not Saadé’s personal earnings or wealth. They are useful mainly as a measure of the size of the business he currently leads.
As of October 1, 2026, Saadé remains Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM.
Who is Greg Hayes?
Greg Hayes in this context is Gregory J. Hayes, the former leader of United Technologies Corporation and RTX.
Hayes graduated from Purdue’s business school in 1982. Public biographies differ on the exact wording of his degree field: corporate biographies have described it as economics, while Purdue materials use management or BSM terminology. The safest description is that he was a Purdue business-school graduate in 1982.
Hayes joined United Technologies through its 1999 combination with Sundstrand. His career there increasingly centered on finance, strategy and corporate restructuring.
He became UTC’s chief financial officer in 2008 and was appointed President and CEO in November 2014. In 2016, he also became chairman.
The restructuring of United Technologies
The years under Hayes included several transactions that changed the shape of United Technologies.
The company sold Sikorsky, acquired Rockwell Collins, and later separated Otis and Carrier into independent companies. UTC’s remaining aerospace businesses then combined with Raytheon in April 2020, creating what became Raytheon Technologies and later RTX.
Hayes led the combined company as CEO.
These transactions are the clearest way to understand his corporate record. Rather than simply expanding one business into adjacent markets, UTC under Hayes went through a broad portfolio restructuring that concentrated the company more heavily around aerospace and defence.
Hayes’s departure from RTX
Hayes’s transition out of executive leadership happened gradually.
On May 2, 2024, Christopher Calio became RTX CEO and Hayes moved into the role of Executive Chairman. RTX later announced that Hayes would step down as Executive Chairman and as a director on April 30, 2025.
He then served as a Special Advisor to RTX’s CEO through January 2, 2026, according to RTX’s board transition announcement.
That means descriptions of Hayes as RTX’s current chief executive, chairman or adviser are now out of date.
What Greg Hayes does now
Hayes remains active in corporate governance.
On May 13, 2026, Phillips 66 appointed him Lead Independent Director. The company’s current biography for Gregory J. Hayes continues to list him in that role.
He also serves as a director of Becton, Dickinson and Company, commonly known as BD. His involvement there began in 2025.
Purdue has also highlighted Hayes’s connection to the Hayes Leadership Coaching Institute, which is supported by Greg and Renata Hayes and focuses on leadership coaching for students. That work sits outside his former RTX executive role but shows one area of his post-CEO public activity.
What can actually be compared between Saadé and Hayes?
There are meaningful differences in the shape of their careers.
Saadé’s record at CMA CGM has centered on expanding a family-founded shipping group into a broader logistics and transportation business. The NOL acquisition, CEVA Logistics deal and move into air cargo fit that pattern.
Hayes’s record at United Technologies and RTX was more heavily defined by portfolio restructuring. Sikorsky was sold, Rockwell Collins was acquired, Otis and Carrier were separated, and the aerospace operations were combined with Raytheon.
Both men have worked at the top of large global companies where capital allocation, acquisitions and long-term industrial strategy matter. Beyond that, there is no need to invent a common “leadership style” or shared business philosophy that the public record does not establish.
Why do their names appear together online?
The simplest answer is that recent web articles have begun pairing them.
One such page published in September 2026 explicitly asked whether there was a Rodolphe Saadé-Greg Hayes business connection. It did not establish one. Other comparison-style pages followed, creating the appearance of a shared subject without supplying a documented transaction or relationship.
So the useful distinction is straightforward: Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes are both prominent corporate figures, but there is no publicly confirmed direct connection between them as of October 1, 2026.
Saadé continues to run CMA CGM. Hayes has left RTX and now holds board roles at Phillips 66 and BD. Their careers are independently notable; the pairing of their names is not, on the available public record, a shared business story.
