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

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, their Belgian subsidiary * Environmental Defense Fund, ...

Early life

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

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

. 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, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. He then studied at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

, and from 1973 the

École nationale supérieure des télécommunications École or Ecole 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 * Éco ...

Career

Early career

Lévy started his career as an engineer at

France Telecom Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation's main brand for mobile, ...

in 1979, in

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

. 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, 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 major French industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Its business activities covered a wide range of industries, notably aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, defence industry, def ...

-Hachette from 1994, Lévy became president and CEO of Matra Communication from 1995 to 1998. He then became managing partner of Oddo & 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. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King (company), King. Founded in July 2 ...

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 S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

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

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 ...

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-speaking countries as SocGen (), is a French multinational universal bank and financial services company founded in 1864. It is registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby i ...

, 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 (IAM, ) 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 and 220 offices present across Morocco. ...

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

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

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

Non-profit organizations

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

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) 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 for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

, member of the board of directors (since 2007)

Recognition

Lévy was appointed a

Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was o ...

, 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 Paris alumni French telecommunications engineers Corps des télécommunications Corps des mines People from Suresnes French civil servants French chief executives Vivendi Électricité de France people Knights of the Legion of Honour Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Activision Blizzard