Jérôme Valentin, president of Cycleurope Industries, has been elected as president of the Union Sport & Cycle (USC), the association formed last year through the merger of groups of French suppliers and retailers in the sports and cycling industries. Elected at the USC's general assembly in Paris on May 16, Valentin takes over from Pierre Gogin, who remains as an adviser for the federation and will represent it in three French trade organizations. Valentin will work together with presidents representing three other groups of stakeholders: Eric Daligault from Kompan, representing suppliers of sporting goods and equipment for leisure facilities; Christophe Mostaert from Groupe Sport 2000 for the retailers; and Paul Andrieux from Groupe Intersport for companies specializing in services. The board of 34 members has been reshuffled with the arrival of Corinne Gensollen and Jacky Rihouet from Intersport, as well as Stéphanie Bloch from Tecnica Group, Eric Laboureix from Skimium, Stéphane Kergavarat from Foot Locker, Nicolas Fauré from Head and Aurélien Bouillet from Groupe Sport 2000. The executive team consists of Romain Guinier from Aigle, Yves Weber from Amer Sports, Nicolas Pelletier from Decathlon, Philippe Jayet from Intersport, André Ghestem from Shimano and Julien Gauthier from Skiset. The USC says it wants to become more pro-active in areas such as employment, education and sustainability, and to defend the interests of the industry, for example in terms of fiscal regulations. It also wants to step up efforts to promote sports participation and active mobility, to organize related events and to assert its function as a reference for information and research on the sports market.

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