Paris (AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron has chosen Jean-Pierre Farandou, a senior executive of the SNCF, to succeed Guillaume Pepy at the head of the group, a nomination that should formalize the Elysee Thursday morning, indicate Wednesday Les Echos.
Contacted by AFP, the Elysee refused to confirm this information.
Jean-Pierre Farandou, 62, has been working at SNCF since 1981. This close friend of Mr. Pepy is since 2012 boss of Keolis, the Group's public transport subsidiary.
Its name came relatively late in all those who have been cited in recent months to lead the "new SNCF" born of the latest railway reform, which will become a public limited company on 1 January 2020.
The executive preferred a profile from outside, but the complexity of the task, the requirement of knowledge of the railway field and the limitation of the salary to 450,000 euros gross per year, seem to have complicated recruitment.
The Elysee must technically announce the intention of the President of the Republic to appoint Mr. Farandou at the head of the SNCF. This proposal must then be validated by the sustainable development committees of the National Assembly and the Senate, after its hearing, then approved by the Council of Ministers. The procedure must last anywhere from three weeks to one month.
Born in July 1957 in Talence (Gironde), Jean-Pierre Farandou is a graduate of the Ecole des Mines de Paris.
After starting his career in a mining company in the United States, he joined the SNCF in 1981 as station manager, before climbing the ladder as project manager of the TGV Paris-Lille, founder of Thalys, director of the human resources, director of the Rhône-Alpes and Keolis Lyon region and director of the SNCF Proximités branch (Ile-de-France, TER and Intercités).
In August 2012, he became the boss of Keolis, a subsidiary that generated last year nearly 6 billion euros in sales (33 billion for the entire SNCF). Very open on the international market, Keolis is well-up for tenders - an experience that will certainly be useful with the arrival of competition in the railways.
© 2019 AFP