Orange Names French Treasury Chief Ramon Fernandez As CFO

(RTTNews) - French telecom major Orange SA (ORAN), previously known as France Telecom, said Tuesday that it has appointed Ramon Fernandez as the company's deputy chief executive officer and chief financial officer. Fernandez, a high-ranking civil servant, is currently serving as France's Treasury chief.

Orange also named Laurent Paillassot as Deputy CEO and Senior Executive Vice President of Customer Experience and Mobile Banking. Both the appointments are effective September 1, 2014.

The two appointments were announced by Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, at the company's annual general meeting on May 27. At the AGM, Orange's board of directors also voted in favor of a renewed mandate for Stéphane Richard as CEO for a second term.

Commenting on the two appointments, Stéphane Richard said, "I am very pleased that these two very talented individuals will be contributing their invaluable skills to the Group's Executive Committee. Ramon brings his widely-recognized expertise in the financial world and Laurent's extensive experience in retail banking and customer satisfaction will be a real asset for the Group."

After serving for eight years as head of Finance where he was one of the key architects of the Group's financial recovery, current finance chief Gervais Pellissier will take over management of the Europe zone, which includes the UK, on September 1. He will replace Benoit Scheen, who has been senior executive vice-president of Europe, excluding France, since September 1, 2011.

Fernandez, aged 47, is a high-ranking civil servant currently serving as Director General of the French Treasury. He worked as senior economic adviser to the French Presidency from June 2007 to April 2008. After that, he served as chief of staff for Xavier Bertrand, French Minister for Labor, Labor Relations, the Family and Solidarity, from April 2008 to January 2009.

Fernandez has also worked in various capacities at the IMF. From May 2002 to October 2003, he was technical staff adviser to the French Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry under Francis Mer. He had also previously held a number of positions within the French Treasury office.

The appointment of Fernandez will become effective following approval by the French State's Ethics Committee.

Paillassot, aged 49, has acted as CEO Delegate of French retail bank LCL since May 2011 after serving as Deputy CEO from 2007 to 2011. He began his career in 1989 at Compagnie Bancaire, Paribas Group, before moving to the Mitchell Madison Group, an American consulting firm specializing in financial strategy, in 1997.

In 2000, Paillassot took a position with the Caisse d'Epargne Group as Director of Distribution and later served as managing director of Caisse d'Epargne Financement. From 2005 to 2007, he served as chairman of GE Money Bank in France, a unit of General Electric Consumer Finance (GE).

ORAN closed Tuesday's trading at $16.38, down $0.02 or 0.12 percent on a volume of 615,356 shares.