The race for the presidency of Orange sees the list of its participants shrink day by day. This Friday, the sources are even unanimous: there would be only one left. In this case, the current president of Valeo, Jacques Aschenbroich, whose candidacy would have finally been retained at the end of a governance committee held the day before on the side of the incumbent operator. The appointment of the 67-year-old manager should be subject to the approval of the operator’s board of directors on March 30, then to that of the group’s shareholders at its general meeting on May 19.
At the end of this marathon procedure, Jacques Aschenbroich will constitute – with Christel Heydemann, recently appointed CEO of Orange – the other half of the executive ticket responsible for succeeding Stéphane Richard, the former CEO of the incumbent operator, whose departure was recorded last November following his conviction in the Tapie case.
The appointment of the current president of Valeo – his mandate there runs until 2023 – is not unanimous on the Orange side, however, with some criticizing the age of the candidate, who will require a change in the group’s statutes for him. enable them to remain in their post after 70 years.
Turn the page
Still, the arrival of the future president of Orange will allow the incumbent to turn the page on the succession of Stéphane Richard, which has proven to be complicated to say the least. As a reminder, the current CEO of Orange, Stéphane Richard, was sentenced on appeal to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 euros after being released at first instance in 2019.
The verdict was rendered on November 24 by the Paris Court of Appeal, condemning the manager for complicity in the embezzlement of public funds in the Crédit Lyonnais arbitration process – at the end of which the businessman Bernard Tapie had received some 400 million euros in 2008, following the sale of Adidas by the banking group.
The CEO of Orange had submitted his resignation to the operator’s board of directors a few hours after his conviction and has since held the position of interim CEO pending the arrival at the helm of Christel Heydemann, scheduled for April 4.