Lévy selected to head EDF
16 October 2014
French president Francois Hollande has selected Jean-Bernard Lévy to replace Henri Proglio as chairman and CEO of French generator EDF.
Lévy is currently chairman and CEO of defence electronics company Thales SA. He is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and Télécom ParisTech. After starting his career at France Telecom, Lévy was CEO of media group Vivendi between 2005 and 2012, before joining Thales.
Economy minister Emmanuel Macron was reported by the Financial Times as saying that the selection of Lévy to replace Proglio was driven by a "new framework" created by the government's change in policy to reduce France's dependence on nuclear energy. The lower house of parliament voted in favour of the policy change last week.
Proglio was appointed the head of EDF in November 2009 by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
At a meeting today, under the chairmanship of Proglio, EDF's board decided to call a general meeting of its shareholders on 21 November to propose the appointment of Lévy and 11 other directors, whose mandates all expire on 22 November.
The French government has an 84.5% stake in EDF, which operates all 58 of France's nuclear power reactors.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News