Thierry Breton

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Thierry Breton (2019)

Thierry Breton (born January 15, 1955 in Paris ) is a French businessman, former professor and politician. Since December 1, 2019, he has been the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services with extended responsibility for Defense and Space in the von der Leyen Commission . He served as Vice Chairman and CEO of Honeywell Bull Group, Chairman and CEO of Thomson-RCA (1997–2002) and Chairman and CEO of France Télécom (2002–2005). Today he is Honorary Chairman of Thomson and Orange . From 2008 to 2019 he was Chairman and CEO of Atos , a leading global IT company (with around 110,000 employees in 73 countries). From 2005 to 2007 he was French Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry under Prime Ministers Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Dominique de Villepin , while Jacques Chirac was President.

Education and early career

In 1979 Thierry Breton obtained a master's degree from the Supélec (École Supérieure d'Éléctricité) in electrical engineering and computer science and is a graduate of the "Institut des hautes études de défense nationale".

Thierry Breton began his professional career in 1979 as a teacher of computer science and mathematics at the Lycée Français de New York. In 1981 he founded the software company Forma Systems and was its CEO until 1986. In the same year he was appointed advisor to the Ministry of Education and Science and designed the Futuroscope technology park. From 1990, Thierry Breton worked for three years as managing director of the international IT company CGI Group.

Manager

In January 2012, the Harvard Business Review, based on an evaluation of the performance of 2000 global CEOs between 1995 and 2009, published the list for the first time The 100 Best-performing CEOs in the World , in which Thierry Breton ranks 62nd (Harvard Business Review, January 2010).

His career includes CEO positions at Group Honeywell Bull, Thomson, France Telekom and Atos.

Honeywell Bull

In 1993 he joined the IT company Bull as Head of Strategy and Development , where he subsequently became CEO of the Group and Deputy Chairman. When he was commissioned to reorganize the ailing, state-owned company, he failed in 1997.

Thomson

Between 1997 and 2002 he was chairman and CEO of Thomson . He reorganized the company and gained recognition for the rapid improvements in the Group's financial performance. The company's market capitalization rose from FF 1 to FF 100 billion under his leadership. By decision of the Board of Directors, he was made Honorary Chairman of Thomson in 2002.

France Telecom

Between 2002 and 2005 he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of France Telecom with an annual salary of 1.3 million euros. He restructured the company and reduced its high debt from 70 billion to 32 billion euros. By decision of the Board of Directors, he was awarded the title of Honorary Chairman of France Telecom in 2005 .

Atos

In November 2008, Thierry Breton took over the position of Chairman and CEO of Atos , then Atos Origin. In July 2011 he managed the takeover of the German Siemens IT Solutions and Services GmbH. The company was a leader among European IT service providers and was among the top 5 worldwide.

With a volume of 850 million euros, it was one of the largest Franco-German transactions. A year later, Atos took on the legal form Societas Europaea , which resulted in two company headquarters - one in Bezons near Paris and one in Munich. Atos is now the largest European IT service provider.

Thierry Breton took part in other projects of European institutions in which the Franco-German partnership played a central role. Together with Jim Hagemann Snabe , the then Co-CEO of the market leader for business software SAP , he chaired the European Cloud Partnership (2012-2014) of the European Commission.

In May 2014, Thierry Breton initiated the friendly takeover of the French IT company Bull . This made Atos a leader in big data and cybersecurity among European companies and worldwide. With this takeover, the company was able to position itself in the field of supercomputers and became the only European manufacturer in this sector . On the day the acquisition was announced, Atos' share price rose 6.2 percent and Bull's share price rose 21.9 percent.

Six months later, Thierry Breton announced the takeover of the IT outsourcing business from Xerox and a strategic partnership with the American group. This acquisition was positively received by the stock market and made Atos one of the five largest digital companies in the world. Within six years, the company had doubled its sales and had a workforce of around 100,000.

After an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2011, Thierry Breton gained global attention: He called internal email traffic the pollution of the information age and declared that it would be banned from Atos within 18 months (also known as Zero-Email ™ Strategy ). Instead, a number of applications such as enterprise social networks, enterprise instant messaging and collaboration tools should be introduced. These were developed partly in-house and partly by external service providers.

The French financial newspaper Les Échos voted Thierry Breton Strategist of the Year for his corporate management in 2012.

In May 2015, the company's market capitalization rose to 7.29 billion euros, an increase of more than 5 billion euros compared to when Thierry Breton took over the business in November 2008. Atos' market share grew 268 percent in five years.

Board member

Thierry Breton has served on the boards of many companies including: AXA , La Poste , Dexia , Rhodia , Schneider Electric , Thomson SA (Chairman and CEO), France Telecom (Chairman and CEO); Orange (non-executive chairman), Bouygues Telecom , Bull (vice chairman and CEO). He is now a member of the Carrefour Board of Directors , where he chairs the Compensation and Performance Committee.

Finance minister

On February 24, 2005, he was appointed to succeed Hervé Gaymard in the office he held until May 18, 2007, when Jean-Louis Borloo was appointed Minister of Finance. The main focus of his policy was to reduce the public deficit at a time when all of the country's income tax revenue was being used to pay interest on debt. When he joined the government, France's debt was 66.4% of GDP. In two years it reduced public debt by 2.7% of GDP, the most significant fall in French economic history in recent times. In addition, he created surpluses (without repayment of public debt interest) in the French budget.

academic career

After leaving the government, he became a professor at Harvard Business School (2007-2008), where he taught leadership and corporate accountability (LCA). Between 1997 and 2005 he was also President of the Université de technologie de Troyes in France.

EU commissioner

On October 24, 2019, he was nominated by President Emmanuel Macron to replace the rejected candidate Sylvie Goulard for the post of French EU Commissioner . On November 12, 2019, the application was confirmed by the European Legal Committee with 12 to 11 votes, so he became Commissioner for Internal Market and Industrial Policy in the von der Leyen Commission on December 1, 2019 . Critics mentioned a possible conflict of interest with his former role as Atos chairman. Proponents saw him as suitable because of his economic experience.

author

He is the author of many books on information technology and economics, and co-author of a novel about cyberspace.

  • 1984: Computer war , The emergence of computer viruses as a weapon of mass destruction ( Software - La Guerre douce ), Thierry Breton - Denis Beneich, éd. Robert Laffont, Paris (translated into 25 countries)
  • 1985: Vatican III , The Origin of a World Based on Information-Based Communities, Thierry Breton, éd. Robert Laffont, Paris
  • 1987: Netwar , The War of the Networks ( La guerre des réseaux ), Thierry Breton, éd. Robert Laffont, Paris
  • 1991: La Dimension invisible , The emergence of the information society (Le défi du temps et de l'information), Thierry Breton, éd. Odile Jacob, Paris
  • 1992: La Fin des illusions , The End of the Geek Age, Thierry Breton, Plon, Paris
  • 1993: Le Télétravail en France , An early description of teleworking in France, Thierry Breton, La Documentation française, Paris
  • 1994: Le Lièvre et la Tortue , France and the knowledge revolution, Thierry Breton - Christian Blanc, éd. Plon, Paris
  • 1994: Les Téléservices en France , An early description of the Internet world, Thierry Breton, La Documentation française, Paris
  • 2007: Antidette , Ways to Reduce France's Excessive Spending and Debt, Thierry Breton, Plon, Paris

Medals and Awards

He is an officer of the Légion d'honneur and commander of the Ordre national du Mérite . He is also a member of Le Siècle and has received other international accolades and awards:

Badge of honor

Awards

  • 2012: Strategist of the Year 2012, Paris, France.
  • 2004: European Business Leader of the Year, London, Great Britain.
  • 2003: Financier of the Year, ANDESE (National Association of PHDs in Economics and Business Administration), Paris, France.
  • 2000: Strategist of the Year 2000, Paris, France.
  • 1998: Global leader of tomorrow, World World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland.
  • 1988: The outstanding young person of the world (TOYP), Jaycees, Sydney, Australia.
  • 1988: Man of the Year, Young Economical Chambers (Jeunes chambres économiques françaises), Paris, France.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dpa: The new commissioners: From old hands and newcomers - the new EU Commission . In: The time . November 27, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 3, 2019]).
  2. ^ Thierry Breton: Executive Profile . Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  3. ^ Thierry Breton 1955 - Biography . Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Thierry Breton. A man of practice. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH 2001 - 2019, February 28, 2005, accessed on November 29, 2019 .
  5. ↑ unknown: Head of France Telecom new finance minister of France. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, February 26, 2005, accessed on November 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Anne-Sylvaine Chassany: Atos Origin Board Fires Chief Germond, Hires Breton , Bloomberg. November 17, 2008. Retrieved February 29, 2012. 
  7. ^ The IT Boss Who Shuns Email , The Wall Street Journal. November 28, 2011. Retrieved December 5, 2011. 
  8. ^ Carrefour: Board member . Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 27, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.finanzen100.de
  9. ^ Chirac Names France Telecom's Breton as New Finance Minister , Bloomberg. February 25, 2005. Retrieved February 29, 2012. 
  10. ↑ New commissioners clear 'conflict of interests' hurdle. Retrieved November 26, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Ursula von der Leyen: Mission Letter. Thierry Breton. Commissioner-designate for Internal Market. In: European Commission. European Comission, November 7, 2019, accessed on November 29, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Thierry Breton - The CEO as a market watchman. In: netzpolitik.org. November 13, 2019, accessed on November 26, 2019 (German).
  13. ^ Frédéric Saliba, 'Le pouvoir à la table du Siècle', in Stratégies , issue 1365, April 14, 2005, p. 49 [1]
personal data
SURNAME Breton, Thierry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French civil servant and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris