Paris (AFP)
With a triple track, public, political and private, rectifier of France Telecom, Thierry Breton, Emmanuel Macron's new candidate for the European Commission, has headed the computer giant Atos for ten years after being Minister of the Economy under Jaques Chirac.
This hard worker, a trained engineer, has multiplied experiences. Born January 15, 1955 in Paris, he was first a professor of computer science and mathematics, boss of small computer companies and even author of science fiction. He has earned a reputation as a savior of companies since the privatization of France Telecom.
Technical Advisor to the Ministry of National Education from 1986 to 1988, he directed the Futuroscope until 1990 and then became General Manager of the CGI Group until 1993.
He then joined the IT group Bull, which he became number two. The ephemeral turnaround of the group's accounts allowed him to be named in 1997 CEO of Thomson Multimedia, who sought an appeal after his abortive privatization and he managed to get out of the rut.
In October 2002 he is called to the rescue of France Telecom, which collapses under a curse debt the 70 billion euros. With the help of the State, it imposes a three-year rescue plan that allows the recovery of the company and its change of status in private enterprise.
Friend of Jacques Chirac, he is then appointed in February 2005 Minister of the Economy of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, following a scandal concerning the apartment of office of his predecessor Hervé Gaymard, forced to resign.
He also has local elected experience, having sat alongside Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the Regional Council of Poitou-Charentes from 1988 to 1992.
Atos, he has more than doubled the group's turnover, to 12.3 billion euros in 2018, and its efectives, some 122,000 employees.
In July, he and his wife were robbed, during which the attackers beat and kidnapped them.
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