Paul du Saillant and Laurent Vacherot Appointed Chief Operating Officers

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, November 29, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- To support deployment of corporate strategy, Essilor's Chief Executive Officer, Hubert Sagnieres, has appointed two Chief Operating Officers from within the Executive Committee.

Paul du Saillant is in charge of Research and Development as well as Quality. He also heads the Europe Region. In addition, he will take on responsibility for Global Operations starting in the first half of 2011.

Laurent Vacherot, in addition to overseeing Corporate Finance, heads Information Systems & Technology and Investor Relations. The Latin America Region is also placed under his supervision. The Equipment and Instrument Divisions will be added to his remit during the first half of next year.

    
    - Paul du Saillant, 51, worked at Air Liquide for nearly 20 years before
      joining Lhoist as Chief Operating Officer and moving on to Essilor in
      2008. He holds a degree from the Ecole Centrale de Paris engineering
      school.

    - Laurent Vacherot, 54, joined Essilor in 1991 as Corporate Senior Vice
      President, Management Accounting. He headed operations in Canada and 
      then the United States before taking on the role of Chief Financial 
      Officer in 2007. Mr. Vacherot is a graduate of a French engineering 
      school, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications de Paris.

The world leader in ophthalmic optical products, Essilor International researches, develops, manufactures and markets around the world a wide range of lenses to improve and protect eyesight. Its flagship brands are Varilux(R), Crizal(R), Essilor(R), Definity(R) and Xperio(TM).

The Company reported consolidated revenue of more than EUR3.2 billion in 2009, with 34,700 employees and operations in 100 countries.

For more information, please visit http://www.essilor.com.

The Essilor share trades on the NYSE Euronext Paris market and is included in the CAC 40 index.

Codes and symbols: ISIN: FR0000121667; Reuters: ESSI.PA; Bloomberg: EI:FP.

    
    Investor Relations and Financial Communications
    Veronique Gillet - Sebastien Leroy
    Phone: [phone]
    http://www.essilor.com

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