Europe 1 with AFP 7:14 p.m., January 28, 2022

The polytechnician Christel Heydemann, was appointed Friday, at 47, general manager of Orange.

Broken in telecoms, she spent fifteen years at Alcatel-Lucent.

From April 4, 2022, she will therefore have to take charge of burning issues such as the transformation of the company, or the deployment of fiber.

A polytechnician experienced in the telecoms sector who comes to feminize a little more the CAC 40: strong in q, the European general manager of Schneider Electric, Christel Heydemann, was appointed Friday, at 47, general manager of Orange.

Also a graduate of the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, she had climbed all the levels of Schneider Electric since her arrival in 2014 at the French giant of energy equipment and solutions, to the position of president of the group in France then director for Europe.

Supported by Bercy

Christel Heydemann had also already been a member of Orange's board of directors since 2017. Her appointment is scheduled for April 4, 2022, Orange said in a press release.

In the running against other "interesting profiles", Christel Heydemann was able to count on the decisive support of the government to get ahead of her competitors.

"Everyone sided with the position of the state", the group's largest shareholder with more than 20% of the capital, said a source familiar with the matter on Monday.

The Ministry of the Economy had publicly expressed its support for the current European director of Schneider Electric at the beginning of January, indicating that it preferred the appointment of a woman among the three candidates in the running, with the current deputy director general of the group, Ramon Fernandez,

Minister Bruno Le Maire "wishes that more women have access to governance positions in large companies", the ministry had further indicated.

Only one woman currently heads a CAC 40 company in France, the managing director of Engie, Catherine MacGregor.

But from July 1, Estelle Brachlianoff will also become Chief Executive Officer of Veolia.

With a long experience in the telecom sector at Alcatel-Lucent, Christel Heydemann has been a member of the Orange Board of Directors since 2017.

Burning files on the table

"As a director of the group for almost five years, I have been able to understand the technological challenges facing our company. I know that the challenges are major, but it is also a huge honor to contribute to the development of one of the major players in the telecoms industry," she said after her appointment in a statement.

Among the first files on Christel Heydemann's table is the transformation of the company, while an intergenerational agreement was reached at the end of 2021 to frame the reduction in the workforce.

Concretely, this will result in early departures, but also 8,000 recruitments by 2024. Not to mention the gradual replacement of the copper network by fiber, or the development of cybersecurity and financial activities, starting with Orange Bank .