There is no publicly documented direct business relationship between Rodolphe Saadé and Gregory J. Hayes as of October 1, 2026. Saadé is Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM, while Hayes is the former United Technologies and RTX CEO who now serves in corporate-board roles at Phillips 66 and Becton, Dickinson and Company. Their careers touch adjacent parts of transportation and aviation, but that overlap does not establish a partnership.
That distinction matters because recent web pages have placed the two names together, creating the impression that there may be a shared deal, company or professional relationship. None of the authoritative corporate or regulatory records supporting their biographies documents such a connection. It would therefore be inaccurate to describe them as business partners, colleagues or collaborators without new evidence.
What the public record does support is a clearer story about two executives whose careers developed in very different corporate settings: Saadé through the expansion of the family-founded CMA CGM shipping group, and Hayes through the restructuring of United Technologies and the creation of Raytheon Technologies, now RTX.
Are Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes connected?
No direct professional relationship between Rodolphe Saadé and Gregory J. Hayes is publicly established.
CMA CGM identifies Saadé as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while current Phillips 66 and BD records identify Hayes as a corporate director and former RTX executive. None of those records identifies the other man as a partner, fellow director, investor or participant in a joint venture. CMA CGM’s governance profile and Phillips 66’s Gregory J. Hayes profile place their current roles in separate organizations.
There is a broad industry overlap. CMA CGM has expanded beyond container shipping into logistics and air cargo, while Hayes spent decades in businesses tied to aerospace through United Technologies and RTX. That is useful context, but it is not evidence that Saadé and Hayes personally worked together.
Recent September 2026 articles have explicitly paired their names, including pages from Orbit News and CoreMagazine. Those pieces compare their careers rather than document a shared transaction. Their existence helps explain why readers may encounter the names together, but not why the two men themselves would be connected.
Who is Rodolphe Saadé?
Rodolphe Saadé is the Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM, the Marseille-based shipping and logistics group.
According to CMA CGM’s official biography, Saadé was born in Lebanon in 1970. He studied at Concordia University in Montreal, where Concordia identifies him as a BComm graduate from 1994. Before joining CMA CGM that year, he had started a water-dispenser business.
His career then developed largely inside CMA CGM. The company says he managed shipping lines during the 1990s and later took responsibility for major international routes. In 2010, CMA CGM says he became Vice Chairman and a member of the board, with responsibilities that included the group’s financial restructuring.
One of his most consequential assignments came during CMA CGM’s acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines, or NOL. The company’s biography credits Saadé with leading the tender process beginning in 2015 and later serving as president of NOL’s board. He also took part in negotiations around the OCEAN Alliance, the container-shipping partnership announced in 2016.
Saadé became CMA CGM’s CEO in February 2017. By November 2017, he had become Chairman and CEO, succeeding into the top leadership role previously held by his father, CMA CGM founder Jacques Saadé. CMA CGM was still identifying Rodolphe Saadé as Chairman and CEO in its second-quarter 2026 financial results.
How CMA CGM expanded under Saadé
Saadé’s tenure has coincided with CMA CGM’s expansion beyond its traditional container-shipping business.
In 2019, CMA CGM took control of CEVA Logistics, giving the group a much larger presence in freight forwarding and contract logistics. In 2021, CMA CGM launched an air-cargo business, adding aviation to a group already active in maritime shipping and logistics.
The company continued buying businesses in subsequent years. Its official biography cites acquisitions including Ingram Micro’s Commerce & Lifecycle Services activities, GEFCO and Colis Privé.
A much larger transaction followed with Bolloré Logistics. CMA CGM’s completion announcement put the purchase price at €4.850 billion, based on estimated debt and cash at completion. CMA CGM’s 2024 financial reporting says Bolloré Logistics began being consolidated into the group from February 29, 2024.
CMA CGM also expanded into media. France’s Competition Authority cleared its acquisition of Altice Media in June 2024, but the approval came with behavioral commitments rather than being unconditional. The regulator detailed those conditions in its June 28, 2024 decision. CMA CGM later reported that the acquisition of RMC BFM was completed on July 2, 2024.
These transactions show the breadth of the group Saadé now leads: maritime transport remains central, but CMA CGM also has substantial operations in logistics, air cargo and media.
Who is Gregory J. Hayes?
The Greg Hayes relevant to this query is Gregory J. Hayes, the former chief executive of United Technologies Corporation and later Raytheon Technologies, now known as RTX.
An SEC-filed United Technologies record says Hayes earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Purdue University in 1982 and is a certified public accountant. He worked at Sundstrand before that company merged with United Technologies in 1999.
That distinction matters to his career chronology. Hayes had predecessor-company experience before joining the UTC corporate structure through the Sundstrand merger; describing him simply as having joined UTC in 1989 would blur those separate corporate histories.
Hayes became United Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer in 2008. On November 23, 2014, the UTC board appointed him President and CEO; the appointment was publicly announced the following day. He became Chairman in September 2016, according to a separate UTC Form 8-K.
From United Technologies to RTX
Hayes’s years at the top of United Technologies included some of the biggest changes in the company’s modern history.
UTC sold Sikorsky Aircraft in 2015. It acquired Rockwell Collins in 2018, expanding its aerospace operations. Carrier and Otis were later separated into independent companies.
The remaining UTC aerospace businesses then combined with Raytheon Company. The merger was completed on April 3, 2020, creating Raytheon Technologies, with Hayes as chief executive. The transaction was documented in the SEC-filed merger completion announcement.
The new company brought together major aerospace and defense operations, including Pratt & Whitney, Collins Aerospace and Raytheon’s defense businesses. It later shortened its corporate name to RTX.
Hayes remained CEO until May 2024, when Christopher T. Calio succeeded him. Hayes then became executive chairman.
That role also ended. An RTX SEC filing from 2025 states that Hayes stepped down as executive chairman and left the board on April 30, 2025. He then served as a non-executive special adviser to the CEO through January 2, 2026.
For that reason, descriptions of Hayes as the current RTX CEO, chairman or adviser are outdated. RTX’s current leadership identifies Christopher T. Calio as Chairman and CEO.
What is Greg Hayes doing now?
Hayes remains active in corporate governance after leaving RTX’s executive leadership.
Becton, Dickinson and Company appointed him to its board effective March 26, 2025. BD’s current corporate profile continues to identify him as a director. The company announced the appointment in its March 2025 board notice.
Phillips 66 later gave Hayes a more prominent board role. On May 13, 2026, the company appointed him Lead Independent Director, effective immediately. Phillips 66’s current governance profile continues to list him in that position and also notes his BD directorship.
Those roles mark a clear shift from running a major aerospace and defense company to serving in board oversight positions.
Why their careers can look connected
The strongest overlap between Saadé and Hayes is industrial rather than personal.
CMA CGM has moved deeper into aviation through CMA CGM Air Cargo, while Hayes spent much of his senior career overseeing companies with major aerospace operations. That puts businesses associated with both men somewhere within the wider aviation and transportation economy.
Their corporate paths, however, were structurally different.
Saadé’s career has centered on expanding CMA CGM from a shipping company into a broader transport and logistics group through acquisitions and new business lines. Hayes spent much of his senior UTC career reshaping a diversified industrial corporation, including selling Sikorsky, buying Rockwell Collins, separating Carrier and Otis, and combining UTC’s remaining aerospace operations with Raytheon.
Those parallels can support a comparison of corporate strategy. They do not establish a Rodolphe Saadé–Greg Hayes partnership.
Current status in 2026
As of October 1, 2026, Rodolphe Saadé remains Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM.
Gregory J. Hayes is no longer an RTX executive. His special-adviser period ended in January 2026, and his verified current public-company roles include Lead Independent Director at Phillips 66 and director at BD.
No documented joint business venture, common board role or direct professional partnership between Saadé and Hayes is publicly established. Their names may appear together because their careers can both be discussed within the broad worlds of global transportation, aviation and large-company strategy, but that is a comparison of industries and careers rather than evidence of a shared relationship.