Agnès Pannier-Runacher (; born 19 June 1974;

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

''Agnès Runacher'') is a French business executive and 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 has been serving as Minister of Ecological Transition in the successive governments of

Prime Minister 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 r ...

s Michel Barnier and

François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...

since 2024. Pannier-Runacher previously was State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Gabriel Attal Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss (; born 16 March 1989) is a French politician who was the prime minister of France from January to September 2024. He was the youngest and the first openly Gay man, gay prime minister in French history. A member ...

(2024) and Minister for Energy Transition in the

Élisabeth Borne Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance, she is the secon ...

(2022–2024) and Secretary of State for Economy and Finance 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 (2018–2022).

Early life and education

Pannier-Runacher was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Ile-de-France on 19 June 1974. Her father was an executive at

Perenco Perenco is an independent Anglo-French oil and gas petroleum company, company with a headquarters in London and Paris.Pere ...

, an oil-and-gas company.Elisa Braun and Alexandre Léchenet (10 November 2022)
French minister in hot water over ties with defense giant Dassault
�''

Politico Europe ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization '' Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...

''. She is a graduate of

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 ...

(1995),

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

and the

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

(ENA), where her classmates included Alexis Kohler.Retour à Bercy pour Agnès Pannier-Runacher, après 15 ans de carrière entre public et privé
''

Le Point ''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and conservative news magazine published in Paris. It is one of the three major French news magazines. ''Le Point'' was founded in 1972 by former journalists of ''L'Express'' and quickly rose to be ...

'', 16 October 2018. She describes her family's political outlook as "centre-left".

Civil service career

Pannier-Runacher joined the French Civil Service in 2000. She first worked at the Inspection générale des finances and then joined the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris in a managerial role from 2003 to 2006. In 2006 she joined the Caisse des dépôts et consignations as deputy director in charge of strategy and finances. In 2009 she became executive director of the Strategic Investment Fund.

Business career

Pannier-Runacher joined the private company Faurecia in 2011. In 2013 she became deputy director at the Compagnie des Alpes in charge of development and performance of skiing and leisure centers.

Political career

Pannier-Runacher was an early supporter of

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 ...

during the

2017 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April and 7 May 2017. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term, but declared on 1 December 2016 that he wo ...

and is a member of the

party. Pannier-Runacher was a candidate in the 16th arrondissement of Paris in the 2020 municipal elections but was ultimately defeated. In early 2021, she announced her candidacy in that year's

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

for the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France. In January 2022, Pannier-Runacher and Élisabeth Moreno jointly published a book on

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She was elected as the 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 the

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

's 2nd constituency in the 2024 legislative election, succeeding Jacqueline Maquet.

Secretary of State for Economy and Finance

Pannier-Runacher was appointed as Secretary of State for Economy and Finance, serving under the leadership of minister Bruno Le Maire, on 16 October 2018. At the time of her appointment, she was the highest-paid official to join the government, earning more than €500,00 per year. Early in her tenure, Pannier-Runacher oversaw the 2.8 billion euros auction of 5G frequencies conducted by French regulator ARCEP in October 2020. During 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 ...

, Pannier-Runacher was put in charge of organizing and reinforcing the production and supply of materials for health care personnel and institutions, such as respirators,

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elect ...

and swabs. She also oversaw the ramp-up of the production of face masks in France. She resisted calls from opposition figures such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon and

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician of the far-right National Rally, National Rally party (RN). She served as the party's president from 2011 to 2021, and ran for the French presidency in ...

, as well as the General Confederation of Labour to nationalise a factory which manufactured oxygen cylinders located in Gerzat,

Puy-de-Dôme Puy-de-Dôme (; or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2021, it had a population of 662,285.new government of Jean Castex, attaining the status of minister as Minister Delegate for Industry, a newly created position which replaced that of the Secretary of State under the purview of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. She led the French inter-ministerial task force participating in the negotiation for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.

Minister for Energy Transition

She was appointed Minister for Energy Transition under the

Borne government The Borne government ( French: ''gouvernement Borne'') was the forty-third government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 16 May 2022 and headed by Élisabeth Borne as Prime Minister under President Emmanuel Macron. It served as a caretake ...

on 20 May 2022. Her appointed was met with criticism over her lack of experience in the area under the purview of the ministry, as well as her family's ties with Perenco, the second-largest oil-and-gas company in France. Pannier-Runacher launched an alliance of nuclear power-supporting

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

countries in March 2023 amid conflict with Germany over whether low-carbon hydrogen produced from nuclear plants should be considered equal to the hydrogen produced by renewable energy sources such as

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

, solar, and

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

by the EU. In October 2023, Pannier-Runacher participated in the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Olaf Scholz and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

to settle differences relating to energy, industrial, and defence policies. One week later, the twenty-seven countries in the European Union reached an agreement to reform the European electricity market that had been hindered by Franco-German disagreements. The French government claims that the agreement will allow

Électricité de France Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...

to build the six EPR nuclear reactors that had been announced in February 2022.

Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

She was appointed Minister Delegate to the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Marc Fesneau on 8 February 2024 in the Attal government.

Other activities

* Elis, Independent Member of the Board of Directors (2014–2018) * Bourbon, Independent Member of the Board of Directors (2009–2018)

Personal life

Pannier-Runacher is in a relationship with Nicolas Bays, a former

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 ...

MP and longtime Macron supporter. She has three children.Mariana Grépinet (13 May 2020)
Les ministres impatients de remettre leurs enfants à l’école
''

Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly gossip magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. ''Paris Match'' has been considered "one of the world's best outlets for photojournalism". ...

''. In 2021, Pannier-Runacher moved to

Lens, Pas-de-Calais Lens (; ) is a city in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is one of the main towns of Hauts-de-France along with Lille, Valenciennes, Amiens, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Arras and Douai. The inhabitants are called ''Lensois'' (). Metro ...

, into a property rented by Bays from an estate company controlled by heirs of the late Olivier Dassault since 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pannier-Runacher, Agnes 1974 births Living people Renaissance (French political party) politicians HEC Paris alumni Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Inspection générale des finances (France) 21st-century French women politicians Politicians from Paris Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Members of the Borne government Deputies of the 17th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic