Anne Lauvergeon

Anne Lauvergeon
Born (1959-08-02) 2 August 1959
Dijon, France
Nationality French
Alma mater Mines ParisTech
Atomic Anne redirects here. For the military hardware known as Atomic Annie, see M65 Atomic Cannon

Anne Lauvergeon (born 2 August 1959) is a French businesswoman, and was CEO of Areva 2001–2011.[1]

Education and career

Born in Dijon, Côte-d'Or, in 1978 she attended the École normale de jeunes filles to pass the Agrégation in physics. Then she entered the Corps des Mines. In 1983 she enrolled in her first vocational course with the Corps de Mines, in the iron and steel industry, at Usinor. A second vocational course, in 1984, took place with the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique, where she studied chemical safety in Europe. From 1985 to 1988, she was with the l'Inspection générale des carrières (IGC). In 1990, she was placed in charge of the mission for the international economy and foreign trade by French President François Mitterrand. The following year, she became assistant secretary general. She was then named "sherpa", i.e. personal representative to the president, and charged with preparing international meetings such as the G7 summit. In 1995, she joined the banking sector, and became a managing partner of Lazard. In March 1997, she was named general director of Alcatel, before becoming part of the group's executive committee.

Leadership in nuclear power

In June 1999, she was named CEO of the group Cogema, succeeding Jean Syrota, who resigned under pressure from The Greens. In July 2001, she merged Cogema, Framatome and other companies to create Areva. Taking the head of the new company, she entered the small circle of women directing international corporations. The 2006 Fortune Global 500, published by the American magazine Fortune, ranked her as the 2nd most powerful women in Europe, behind Patricia Russo, future president of Alcatel-Lucent.

In 2001, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg chose her to chair the "national contest of assistance the creation of companies of innovating technologies".

In September 2002, the daily economic newspaper Les Échos uncovered a report from the French court of auditors, citing her compensation (salary of €305,000 with bonus of €122,000) and "golden parachute" of two years' wages.

Towards the end of 2006, Areva encountered difficulties with its new European Pressurized Reactor and announced an expected delay of eighteen months to three years for its delivery according to the French daily newspaper La Tribune.[2] The reactor is to be the first of its kind in Finland. The delay may cost €700 million.[3]

Lauvergeon is also President of the board of directors of École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy[4] and is a director or board member of Suez, Total S.A., Safran S.A. and Vodafone.[5][6][7][8]

On 10 July 2008, in the French economic paper "Challenges," she stated: "Uranium is a main part of our success. Our model is... Nespresso: we sell coffee machines and the coffee which fit for them. And coffee is very profitable. So in China, we sold two nuclear parts, plus 35% of our uranium production. This is our integrated business model".[9]

On 16 October 2009, Lauvergeon addressed journalists outside the "Women’s Forum" organised in Deauville. She declared: "To be clear, with same competences, sorry, we will choose the woman or something else rather than the white male." She said these words during the France 2 evening news.[10][11][12] This statement generated reaction and was chosen as an example by Éric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen to explain that positive discrimination was a kind of racism.

In June 2010, she was attended the Bilderberg conference in Sitges, Spain.[13] She is as well member of Trilateral Commission.[14]

On 16 June 2011 François Fillon, the French Prime minister, announced that Anne Lauvergeon's mandate as head of Areva, terminating end of June 2011, would not be renewed. She was replaced by Luc Oursel, member of the Areva board of management since 2007.[15]

In July 2011 Lauvergeon was elected an International Fellow by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK.[16]

International recognition

In 2009, she was ranked by Forbes magazine as the ninth-most powerful woman in the world.[17]

References

Business positions
Preceded by
None
CEO of Areva
2001–2011
Succeeded by
Luc Oursel
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