Cédric O (born 18 December 1982) is a French politician of

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022 ...

(LREM) who served as Secretary of State (junior minister) for the

Digital Economy The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional Brick and mortar, brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by the ...

in the governments of successive

Prime Ministers A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rat ...

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor (France), mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 202 ...

and

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020. Castex served for twelve years as mayor of the small town of ...

from 2019 to 2022. O is a cofounder of the

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

startup

Mistral AI Mistral AI SAS () is a French artificial intelligence (AI) startup, headquartered in Paris. Founded in 2023, it specializes in open-weight large language models (LLMs), with both open-source and proprietary AI models. Namesake The company is ...

Early life and education

Cédric O, son of a French mother from

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and a Korean executive, was born on 18 December 1982. He is the brother of Delphine O, former member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

for Paris's 16th constituency. After graduating from

Lycée du Parc The Lycée du Parc is a public secondary school located in the sixth ''arrondissement'' of Lyon, France. Its name comes from the Parc de la Tête d'Or, one of Europe's largest urban parks, which is situated nearby. It provides a ''lycée''-level ...

, he enrolled at

HEC Paris HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...

and graduated in 2006.

Business career

In 2007, O started working as communications manager for the Operationelle corporation. Between 2014 and 2017, he was project manager for the

Safran Safran S.A. () is a French Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace, defence industry, defence and computer security, security corporation headquartered in Paris. It designs, develops and manufactures both commercial and military airc ...

aircraft & rocket engine manufacturing company.

Political career

Along with future

cadres

Ismaël Emelien Ismaël Emelien (born 9 March 1987) is a French political advisor. He co-founded En Marche! and served as President Emmanuel Macron's special advisor for strategy, communication and speeches. Early life and education Emelien was born 9 March 19 ...

and

Benjamin Griveaux Benjamin-Blaise Griveaux (; born 29 December 1977) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as Government Spokesman from 2017 to 2019 under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. From 2017 until 2021, he also served as a ...

, as well as HEC alumnus

Stanislas Guerini Stanislas Guerini (; born 14 May 1982) is a French politician who served as Minister of Public Transformation and Service in the government of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal between 2022 and 2024. Prior to enter ...

, O participated in the campaign team of

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist P ...

for the 2006 French Socialist Party presidential primary. After serving as

political adviser Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely televisi ...

finance minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

Pierre Moscovici Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to ...

, during the presidency of

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

, O was appointed treasurer of the

party in

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

's 2016–17 presidential campaign. In November 2017, O assumed the duties of political advisor to Macron and prime minister

. Also since November 2017, O has been part of LREM's executive board under the leadership of the party's successive chairmen

Christophe Castaner Christophe Castaner (; born 3 January 1966) is a French politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 16 October 2018 to 6 July 2020 under President Emmanuel Macron. He had been elected in 2017 for a three-year term as chairman (''délég ...

and

. On 31 March 2019, O was appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary for the

, serving under the leadership of minister

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician, writer, and former diplomat who served as Economy and Finance Minister from 2017 to 2024 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in ...

. In this capacity, he has invited tech CEOs to meet with the French president about the so-called “tech for good" project, as well as

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

s to Paris to promote to them the purported benefits of investing in the French "tech ecosystem." Cédric O convinced

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

to allow French regulators to investigate the company's

moderation Moderation is the process or trait of eliminating, lessening, or avoiding extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include: * A way of life emphasizing perfect amo ...

processes, and also arranged a meeting between Macron and

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

. On 26 July 2020, O was appointed State Secretary of Digital Transition and Electronic Communications. Among his tasks was the installation of the future 5G network in France.

Life after politics

From 2022 to 2023, O served on the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

’s High-Level Advisory Group on Human and Robotic Space Exploration for Europe.

Other activities

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decis ...

(ECFR), Member

Political positions

Amid efforts to contain the

COVID-19 pandemic in France The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. T ...

, O was one of the early supporters of the government's proposal for a state-supported “StopCovid” contact-tracing app project. He later publicly accused

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

of undermining the effort by refusing to help make its

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

s more compatible with the app. In a joint statement in October 2020, O and his Dutch counterpart

Mona Keijzer Maria Cornelia Gezina "Mona" Keijzer (born 9 October 1968) is a Dutch politician and former civil servant who is the minister of housing and spatial planning in the Schoof cabinet since 2024. A member of the Farmer–Citizen Movement (''BoerBu ...

called for a European Union authority to regulate large technology companies and argued that such an authority should be able to prevent digital platforms from blocking access to their services “unless they have an objective justification.”Mathieu Rosemain and Douglas Busvine (15 October 2020)
France, Netherlands call for an EU watchdog to regulate tech giants
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:O, Cedric 1982 births Living people People from L'Arbresle HEC Paris alumni Renaissance (French political party) politicians French politicians of Korean descent Politicians from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 21st-century French politicians