TANGRAM: a center of excellence dedicated to creating a sustainable future for shipping and logistics

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, laid the cornerstone of TANGRAM, the CMA CGM Group’s training and innovation center, in a ceremony attended by Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, French Minister Delegate with responsibility for Transport, Benoît Payan, Mayor of Marseille, and Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the project’s architect.

A collaboration-based facility focused on training and innovation

TANGRAM, which takes its name from a Chinese puzzle that requires creativity and deep thinking, is a new place of collaboration built around two major challenges—developing skills and accelerating innovation. The project is all about harnessing collective intelligence, bringing skills together and looking ahead to the world of the future. 100% of the Group’s employees around the world will be given access to training. Nearly 90 people per day will be able to attend training sessions at the site. It will also host an Apprentice Training Center to meet the need for professionals in high-demand areas and to train people for the jobs of the future.

TANGRAM aims to bring together an ecosystem from around the world, including individual researchers , teams from leading research centers and universities and young entrepreneurs. They will interact with the Group’s partners and customers to find the solutions needed to address global challenges.    

TANGRAM, an outstanding new venue that will shape a sustainable future for shipping and logistics

 Located at the gateway to the Parc National des Calanques, TANGRAM’s role is to transform the shipping and logistics sectors for the future by addressing the core challenges of performance, energy transition and global trade. The architectural project, entrusted to Jean-Michel Wilmotte, rehabilitates a historic jewel—La Bastide of Pointe Rouge—and enhances the site of the former École Nationale Supérieure Maritime. The center will feature a training hub occupying more than 2,500 m2 around the 19th century aristocrat’s manor, including an innovation hub and an Events Center, as well as a restaurant facility and a café—a great place for the various groups of people at the site to meet up and discuss challenges.

With TANGRAM, the CMA CGM Group intends to develop a center of excellence and dialogue, generating new ideas and solutions and converting them into impactful projects with the support from highly talented individuals.

Founded in 1978 in Marseille, the CMA CGM Group shares a long history with the city where more than 2,500 of its employees work. With the TANGRAM center, a new bond has been forged with the city that will help raise its profile around the world.

Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, commented: “With Tangram, the CMA CGM Group is equipping itself with a training and innovation center to meet the major challenges ahead and build the sustainable transport and logistics of tomorrow. With a resolutely forward-looking approach, this center will bring together our Group's experts, start-ups, researchers, and other companies from all around the world, sharing our commitment to invent the solutions of the future in the fields of sea, land, air transport, and logistics.”

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, French Minister Delegate with responsibility for Transport, declares: “We cannot build the world of tomorrow by relying on 20- or 30-year-old achievements. Lifelong learning must become the norm; TANGRAM is contributing to this. It is a pleasure to lay the foundation stone today.”

Benoît Payan, Mayor of Marseille, said: "This CMA CGM TANGRAM academy will be the starting point of a wonderful human adventure based on a pioneering and innovative spirit in favor of a greener and bluer society, which fits perfectly with our municipal project. This school has been designed to raise awareness among young people of Marseille to sea-related professions and the defense of our marine and underwater heritage. It will be the meeting point for all those who have the desire to transform their sector of activity. In a few months, in a few years, we will see dozens of students and professionals who will have the unique opportunity to join TANGRAM.”

Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the project’s architect, added: “I like building from the roots up.”