French firm Gemalto announced its long serving chief executive Olivier Piou (pictured) will retire at the end of August, and is likely to be replaced by current COO Philippe Vallee.

In a statement, Gemalto said Vallee will be proposed by the company’s board of directors at its annual general meeting to become an executive director of the board, and the company’s CEO, effective 1 September.

Piou, who joined the company in 1981, has led the company for 18 years, and will be proposed at the same meeting to continue to serve as a non-executive director of the company.

“We always take a long term view about our business and manage change proactively, said Piou. “After such a large number of years at the helm, I believe this autumn will be the right time to bring in a new leadership, which is ready and able to execute on our next phase of growth.”

Vallee joined Gemalto in 1992, and has more than 27 years’ experience in the digital security space, both on the embedded software and product side, said the company.

Partnership in Saudi Arabia 
In a separate announcement, Gemalto said it had been selected by the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia to migrate its portfolio of credit cards to the company’s contactless EMV cards.

The partnership with see NCB, one of the country’s largest banks with four million customers, adopt Gemalto’s Clarista contactless EMV cards, which has been customised to meet Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) specifications.

Gemalto said the launch of the contactless card “supports the wider efforts of the SAMA to encourage the move to a cashless society”, with new regulations also fuelling an increasing trend towards e-commerce and m-commerce across the country.