Saade is the chairman and chief executive of CMA CGM, a closely held shipping and logistics company. The Marseille, France-based business has more than 590 ships and reported revenue of 74.5 billion euros ($80.8 billion) in 2022. Saade shares ownership of the closely held company with his two siblings.
The majority of Saade's fortune is derived from his family's controlling stake in CMA CGM, a closely held shipping and logistics company. The Marseille, France-based group has more than 590 ships, according to its website.
Saade and his family, including his two siblings, own 73% of the group, according to company filings.
CMA CGM is valued using reported financial results and the average enterprise value-to-sales and price-to-book value multiples of three publicly traded peers: AP Moller - Maersk A/S, COSCO Shipping Holdings and Hapag-Lloyd AG.
A spokesperson for CMA CGM declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Saade was born in Lebanon in 1970. His father, Jacques Saade, moved his family to Marseilles, France in 1978 and founded Compagnie Maritime d'Affretement, which initially focused on operating ferries between Marseille and Beirut.
Rodolphe Saade studied marketing at Concordia University in Montreal before joining the family company in 1994.
A series of acquisitions culminated in the purchase of Compagnie Generale Maritime from the French government in 1996 and the formation of CMA CGM in 1999. The combined group was the world's 12th-largest shipping conglomerate at the time.
After running a series of shipping lines, Rodolphe Saade took over much of the group's global expansion. By 2010, he had overseen a major financial restructuring of the group. Around this time was appointed vice chairman and a member of the CMA CGM's board of directors.
He was appointed chairman and chief executive of the company in 2017.