There is no public confirmation of a direct business relationship between Rodolphe Saadé and Gregory J. Hayes, the former RTX chief executive. Their documented careers do not show a shared employer, board position, joint investment or announced partnership.
What does connect them is much broader: both have led large international businesses tied to transportation and complex supply chains. Saadé remains Chairman and CEO of shipping and logistics group CMA CGM, while Hayes has left executive leadership at RTX and now holds senior board roles at Phillips 66 and Becton, Dickinson and Company.
Recent websites have begun pairing their names, but those articles do not establish an underlying deal or personal relationship. The more useful story is how two separate executives reshaped major companies in shipping, logistics, aerospace and industrial manufacturing.
Who is Rodolphe Saadé?
Rodolphe Saadé was born in Lebanon in 1970 and is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group.
He graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1994. Concordia says he operated a water-dispenser business before joining CMA CGM that year. Concordia University’s profile of Rodolphe Saadé confirms his 1994 degree and early career background.
Saadé then built most of his career inside CMA CGM, the transportation group founded by his father, Jacques Saadé. According to CMA CGM’s executive biography, he managed several shipping lines during the late 1990s, later took responsibility for major transatlantic and transpacific activities, and became vice chairman and a board member in 2010.
He was also involved in major strategic projects including the acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines and the negotiations around the OCEAN Alliance.
Becoming CMA CGM’s chief executive
Saadé became CMA CGM’s chief executive on February 7, 2017, while Jacques Saadé initially remained chairman. The company announced the succession in its February 2017 appointment notice.
The two positions were combined later that year. On November 24, 2017, CMA CGM announced that Rodolphe Saadé had become Chairman and CEO. CMA CGM’s November 2017 governance announcement records that change.
That distinction matters because biographies sometimes compress both appointments into a single 2017 date.
How CMA CGM expanded under Saadé
One of the clearest developments during Saadé’s leadership has been CMA CGM’s expansion beyond its traditional container-shipping business.
In 2019, the group completed its public tender offer for CEVA Logistics, giving CMA CGM a substantially larger position in freight management and contract logistics. The transaction was confirmed in CMA CGM’s CEVA completion announcement.
The group established CMA CGM AIR CARGO in 2021, adding dedicated air freight to its transport network. It expanded further through transactions involving Ingram Micro’s Commerce & Lifecycle Services activities, GEFCO and Colis Privé.
A further major step came on February 29, 2024, when CMA CGM completed its acquisition of Bolloré Logistics. CMA CGM and Bolloré’s transaction announcement confirmed completion of the deal.
These moves pushed CMA CGM further toward an integrated transport-and-logistics model spanning container shipping, logistics services, terminals and air freight.
The scale of the business remains substantial. In its second-quarter 2026 results, CMA CGM reported group revenue of $15.7 billion, EBITDA of $3.0 billion and 6.3 million TEUs transported during the quarter. Those are corporate operating figures, not Saadé’s personal income or wealth.
As of October 1, 2026, Saadé remains Chairman and CEO.
Who is Gregory J. Hayes?
Gregory J. Hayes is an American business executive best known for leading United Technologies Corporation and later Raytheon Technologies, the company now known as RTX.
Hayes spent much of his career at United Technologies, including senior roles in finance and corporate strategy. He became UTC’s chief executive in 2014 and chairman in 2016.
His tenure coincided with a significant reshaping of the company. UTC sold Sikorsky Aircraft, acquired Rockwell Collins and ultimately separated Carrier and Otis into independent companies.
The remaining aerospace businesses then combined with Raytheon Company. RTX’s merger announcement records the April 2020 combination that created Raytheon Technologies.
Hayes became chief executive of the combined company.
Hayes’s transition out of RTX
Hayes is no longer the CEO or Executive Chairman of RTX.
Christopher Calio succeeded him as chief executive on May 2, 2024, while Hayes moved into the Executive Chairman role. The succession was disclosed in an RTX filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
His remaining RTX leadership role ended the following year. A later RTX Form 8-K states that Hayes stepped down as Executive Chairman and left the board on April 30, 2025.
He then served as a Special Advisor to the CEO through January 2, 2026.
That chronology is more precise than a 2026 Purdue University feature that described him as Executive Chairman until “late 2025.” For the formal leadership dates, the SEC filing is the stronger record.
What Greg Hayes is doing now
Hayes has moved from running RTX to corporate board work.
On May 13, 2026, Phillips 66 appointed him Lead Independent Director. The company said he had already served on its board for several years. Phillips 66’s appointment announcement records the change.
Its current Gregory J. Hayes board biography also identifies him as a director of Becton, Dickinson and Company, commonly known as BD.
BD’s public filings likewise list Hayes as an independent director. He joined that board in 2025.
Hayes holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Purdue University and is a certified public accountant, according to his Phillips 66 biography.
Do Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes have a documented connection?
No direct Saadé-Hayes partnership is publicly established.
CMA CGM’s governance records place Saadé at the head of the shipping and logistics group. Hayes’s current records place him in board roles at Phillips 66 and BD following the end of his RTX executive career. Their documented employment and board histories do not show a common company or shared directorship.
There is an industrial overlap, but it should not be overstated. CMA CGM operates in air freight through CMA CGM AIR CARGO, while Hayes spent decades overseeing aerospace businesses including Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace through United Technologies and RTX.
That places companies associated with the two men in adjacent parts of global transport and aviation. It does not establish that Saadé and Hayes personally worked together.
Why their names are appearing together online
The pairing itself has recently appeared on websites publishing articles about possible connections between public figures.
An OrbitNews article published September 22, 2026 asks whether Saadé and Hayes have a business connection and concludes that no direct public relationship is established. Another comparison published later in September likewise places them side by side without documenting a joint transaction.
Those pages show that the paired search exists online. They do not supply evidence of a hidden partnership or shared venture.
The reason the two names first became associated in search results is not publicly established.
How their corporate careers differ
The most useful comparison is not personal but structural.
Saadé’s tenure at CMA CGM has been marked by expansion across more stages of the transportation chain. The group has added logistics businesses, air cargo and other capabilities around its core shipping network.
Hayes’s years at United Technologies moved in a different direction. UTC sold or separated major businesses while increasing its focus on aerospace, culminating in the 2020 combination with Raytheon.
Both executives therefore oversaw large changes to complex multinational companies, but they did so in different corporate settings and through different transactions.
Saadé remains an active chief executive, leading CMA CGM in 2026. Hayes has completed his RTX executive career and now works primarily through public-company boards.
That is the clearest current distinction between Rodolphe Saadé and Greg Hayes: they are two prominent business figures whose careers can be compared, but there is no publicly confirmed direct partnership between them.
