Jean-Bernard Lévy (born 18 March 1955) is a French businessman, and the CEO and chairman of

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

Early life

Born on 18 March 1955, the son of a doctor, Lévy attended the Lycée Pasteur in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

. His parents sent him to England for a year to learn English, at St Martin's preparatory school in Northwood,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. He then studied at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, and from 1973 the École nationale supérieure des télécommunications.

Career

Early career

Lévy started his career as an engineer at

France Telecom Orange S.A. (), formerly France Télécom S.A. (stylized as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. In 2015, ...

in 1979, in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

. In 1982, he joined the Directorate General of Telecommunications within the PTT France, responsible for the management of senior staff and budgets, then promoted to deputy chief of staff.

Career in the public sector

In 1986, Lévy moved to Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones under secretary of state

Gérard Longuet Gérard Longuet (; born 24 February 1946 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French conservative politician who has served as a member of the Senate from 2001 to 2011 and again since 2012, representing Meuse. He served as Minister of ...

, acting as technical advisor and consultant for international affairs and industry. After a period at Matra Space as director of communications satellites, after the return to power of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, he returned to the French civil service under government under Longuet as his executive secretary, retaining the position in the Ministry of Industry, Posts and Telecommunications and Foreign Trade under Jose Rossi.

Career in the private sector

Appointed Group Director of

Matra Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a French industrial conglomerate. During its years of operation, it was engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily focused around automobiles, bicycles, aeronautics and we ...

-Hachette from 1994, Lévy became president and CEO of Matra Communication from 1995 to 1998. He then became managing partner of Oddo et Cie until 2002, when merged to become Pinatton Corporate he chaired the senior management team. Appointed CEO of Vivendi in 2002, he became chairman of the executive board in 2005. In this capacity, he has hence chaired the supervisory board of Viroxis since 2007, and

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...

since 2009. In June 2012 Lévy left Vivendi due to a clash of views with the chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou and a clash over views on the company's future strategy. In December 2012, Lévy was appointed as the CEO of

Thales Group Thales Group () is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris' ...

. In October 2014, he replaced Henri Proglio as the CEO of

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

His period as CEO proved difficult, with declining profits and EDF's market value halving by March 2016, when the chief financial officer resigned over investment decisions.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

, independent member of the board of directors (since 2009)Board of Directors

. * Vinci, member of the board of directors (2007–2015) * DCNS, member of the supervisory board (2013–2014) * Viroxis, chairman of the supervisory board (2007–2014) *

Maroc Telecom Maroc Telecom (Acronym: IAM, ar, اتصالات المغرب) is the main telecommunications company in Morocco. Currently employing around 11,178 employees, it is the largest telecommunications network in the country with 8 regional delegations ...

, deputy chairman of the supervisory board (2007–2012) * Cegetel, member of the supervisory board (-2008) *

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, member of the board of directors (2004–2012)

Non-profit organizations

* Institut Télécom, chairman of the board (since 2009) *

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines f ...

, member of the board of directors (since 2007) *

Eurelectric Eurelectric (full name: The Union of the Electricity Industry) is the sector association which represents the common interests of the electricity industry at a European level, plus its affiliates and associates on several other continents. Toget ...

, president (since 2021)

Recognition

Lévy was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, and an Officier of the Ordre national du Mérite.

References

External links

Bio at Businessweek
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Jean-Bernard 1955 births Living people Lycée Pasteur (Neuilly-sur-Seine) alumni École Polytechnique alumni Télécom ParisTech alumni French telecommunications engineers Corps des télécommunications Corps des mines People from Suresnes French civil servants French chief executives Vivendi Électricité de France people Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Activision Blizzard