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Marrakech – Mehdi Tazi took the helm of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) on Thursday, winning the presidency of the country’s leading employers’ body at an elective general assembly held in Casablanca.
His running mate, Mohamed Bachiri, was elected vice president general. The two will lead the confederation for a three-year term running from May 14, 2026 to May 14, 2029.
The Tazi-Bachiri ticket was the sole candidacy in the race. Their bid had been validated by the CGEM Board of Directors on April 15. Put to a vote, the resolution secured 3,773 votes out of 4,123 cast, an approval rate of 91.5%.
The pair succeeds the outgoing leadership team of Chakib Alj and Mehdi Tazi, who have served together since 2020. Tazi’s elevation from vice president general to president marks an internal transition rather than a clean break at the top of Moroccan organized business.
Tazi built his career in finance and insurance. A graduate of Télécom Paris Sud and holder of an MBA from INSEAD, he led Saham Assurance before its sale to the South African group Sanlam. He then moved on to head Marsh Beassur.
Since 2017, he has chaired ASK Capital, a holding company with interests spanning insurance, consulting, real estate, and business services. His six years as vice president general under Alj gave him deep familiarity with the confederation’s internal workings.
Bachiri brings an industrial profile to the partnership. He serves as director general of Renault Group Morocco and previously headed SOMACA, the country’s historic automotive assembly plant. He joined Renault Morocco in 2006 after a stint at Lafarge Maroc.
Within the CGEM, he held the position of vice president and chaired the Innovation and Industrial Development Commission. His trajectory is closely tied to the rise of Morocco’s automotive sector, particularly the Renault-Nissan industrial project in Tangier, which helped turn the industry into one of the kingdom’s top export pillars over the past decade.
Bachiri also served as interim CGEM president after the resignation of Salaheddine Mezouar in 2019, holding the post until the election of the Alj-Tazi tandem.
Tazi links private sector success to Morocco’s national development
That complementarity – finance on one side, industry on the other – formed the core argument of their joint bid. In his pre-vote address, Tazi laid out the tandem’s motivations.
“The exchanges that Mohamed Bachiri and I have daily with business leaders remind us every time of the deep reasons that led us to run: the desire to help accelerate the transformation of our economy, by valuing our entrepreneurial fabric, which is extraordinary, and by giving our national enterprises all the conditions to continue growing, innovating, conquering new markets, and creating jobs,” he told the assembly.
The tandem ran on a program structured around five axes, centered on accelerating the transformation of the national economy and upgrading Moroccan enterprises.
Their stated priorities include improving the business environment through administrative simplification, access to land, and MSME financing. On productive sovereignty, they set a target of 70% local integration and the development of new industrial ecosystems.
Innovation features prominently, with plans for a “Morocco Innovation Lab,” SME digitization, and startup support. International outreach efforts will focus on export development, a stronger presence in Africa, and mobilizing the Moroccan diaspora. Internally, the program calls for better coordination between sectoral federations and CGEM regional branches.
Tazi and Bachiri have expressed a clear ambition: to move the CGEM beyond its traditional advocacy role toward a more results-oriented, impact-driven organization. The incoming leadership has framed its mission as “a new stage” for the confederation with “even more impact” in a phase they consider favorable to Morocco’s economic acceleration.
Closing his address, Tazi tied the confederation’s mission directly to national development. “With Mohamed Bachiri, we approach the responsibility of implementing this program with determination, rigor, and confidence in the capabilities of our entrepreneurial fabric,” he declared.
“Because ultimately, the sustained development of our country will depend on the success of its enterprises, just as the success of our enterprises will be inseparable from the development of our country.”
The new leadership inherits the confederation at a pivotal moment
The assembly also marked the formal departure of Chakib Alj after six years at the top. In an emotional farewell address, the outgoing president reflected on a tenure shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic slowdowns, and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war. “And in this context, an immense expectation: to show up. And we did,” Alj told the assembly.
Alj pointed to the CGEM’s role during those crises, describing the organization as “a voice, a solid support, and a reliable partner” for businesses navigating unprecedented disruption.
He hailed “the resilience, innovation, agility, and patriotism” of Moroccan entrepreneurs and called for a “strong, frank, and constructive” public-private partnership to sustain the economic recovery.
On the institutional front, Alj described a confederation that had been “strengthened in its fundamentals and modernized in its tools” over his two mandates. The CGEM today represents close to 100,000 enterprises, with micro, small, and medium-sized firms accounting for 95% of its membership.
He listed the business climate, taxation, payment delays, access to financing, social dialogue, and human capital among the key dossiers the confederation advanced during his tenure. He also pointed to economic diplomacy efforts aimed at positioning Moroccan firms within global value chains and deepening the private sector’s footprint across Africa.
Still, Alj acknowledged the road ahead would only grow more demanding. He cited innovation, artificial intelligence, industrial reinforcement, and human capital development as challenges that are “more complex and faster” than those his team faced. “The CGEM’s conviction is that the enterprise is not just an economic actor. It is a force for transformation and prosperity across society as a whole,” he declared.
Turning to his successors, Alj offered a parting vote of confidence. “I am convinced that Mehdi Tazi and Mohamed Bachiri will carry the national private sector toward new horizons, with ambition, rigor, and a sense of responsibility,” he concluded.
Founded in 1947, the CGEM positions itself as the voice of Morocco’s private sector. It claims more than 90,000 direct and affiliated members and engages with public authorities, social partners, and institutional actors to represent the interests of Moroccan business.
The new leadership now inherits an organization at a pivotal moment – tasked with delivering on a reform agenda in the context of Morocco’s preparations for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, ongoing industrial expansion, and a rapidly shifting global economic landscape.
