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Adecco SA (ADO) Thursday ousted its CEO and replaced him with a former executive as it seeks to accelerate the international expansion of its professional staffing business.

Patrick de Maeseneire will succeed Dieter Scheiff, who will leave the company after three years in the top job.

De Maeseneire, 51 years old, currently heads Swiss industrial chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG (BARN.EB). He will take up his new post June 1.

De Maeseneire was unavailable for comment.

Adecco Chairman Rolf Doerig said de Maeseneire's appointment was part of Adecco's strategic plan to broaden the global reach of its high-margin professional staffing business, which places highly qualified workers such as lawyers, economists and medical employees.

"De Maeseneire has a proven successful international track record," Doerig said, adding that, "in combination with his strong leadership skills and international sales background, de Maeseneire will lead Adecco to the next stage of development and success."

De Maeseneire, a Belgian who worked at Adecco from 1998 to 2002, has intimate knowledge of the company's professional staffing business. He led this business from New York from 2000 to 2002 before he joined Barry Callebaut as CEO. Under his reign, Adecco started to move into this business field more actively.

Professional staffing generates substantially higher profit margins than the regular placement of blue-collar workers, where profitability is on the decline as firms hire fewer staff.

To counter this trend, Adecco has pushed its professional staffing division in the past but now aims to further accelerate growth and profitability in this area. "We want to grow this business organically and via acquisitions," Chairman Doerig said.

Adecco, like rivals such as U.S.-based Manpower Inc. (MAN) and Randstad NV (RAND.AE) of the Netherlands, is struggling with sharply deteriorating employment markets, especially in countries such as the U.S., Spain and the U.K., where unemployment rates are reaching record highs.

The company recently has said it hoped to counter declining sales and profits with job cuts and cost cuts. But acquisitions should also help it buck the rapidly deteriorating trend. Adecco posted a fourth-quarter net loss and saw sales fall about 25% in January and February.

Doerig thanked outgoing CEO Scheiff, 56, for his contribution "to improve the profitability of the company even in challenging times." Scheiff had joined Adecco three years ago from Germany-based staffing company DIS.

Adecco's shares Wednesday closed at 36.12 Swiss francs and have lost 38% of their value in the past 12 months as companies cut back on staff during a widespread recession.

 
   Company Web site: www.adecco.com 
 
   -By Goran Mijuk, Dow Jones Newswires, +41 43 443 80 47; goran.mijuk@dowjones.com