Executive Management

@J_B_Levy

Jean-Bernard Levy

A former student of École Polytechnique (graduating in 1973) and Telecom Paris Tech, Jean-Bernard Lévy began his career at France Télécom in 1979 as a works engineer at the Angers Division.

In 1982, he became responsible for managing executive managers and HR budgets at head-office, then assistant to the head of HR.

In 1986, he was appointed Technical Advisor to the office of Gérard Longuet, Minister for Postal Services and Telecommunications.

From 1988 to 1993, Jean-Bernard Lévy managed the telecommunications satellite activity of Matra Espace, now Matra Marconi Space. From 1993 to 1994, he ran the office of Gérard Longuet, Minister for Industry, Postal Services and Communications and foreign trade.

In 1995, he was appointed Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Matra Communication.

In 1998, he joined Oddo & Cie as Chief Executive Officer then Managing Partner. In summer 2002, Jean-Bernard Lévy joined Vivendi. He served as its Chief Executive Officer until April 2005 and became Chairman of its Executive Board in April 2005, until June 2012.

From December 2012 to November 2014, he was Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of the Thales defence and aerospace group.

EDF director since 23 November 2014, Jean-Bernard Lévy has been the Company’s Chairman & Chief Executive Officer since 27 November 2014.

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Marc Benayoun

Marc BENAYOUN, a graduate of ESSEC Business School, started his career in the Paribas Group in 1989, before joining The Boston Consulting Group in 1993.

He became Associate Director at the Paris office in 2001, then at the Moscow office in 2008. During this period, he took on various responsibilities, including the development of the company’s natural gas expertise and activities. He also spearheaded the expansion of the Paris office into government consulting (with clients including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy and Transportation, and the Ministry of Health).

In 2009, he joined the EDF Group as Tariffs & Prices Director, at the Commerce Division. He was notably in charge of discussions related to changes in the French regulated electricity tariffs.

In 2012, he became Director, Business Customers Market. In this role, he managed the project to end regulated electricity tariffs for companies and local communities, which resulted in EDF regaining its leadership position in a competitive environment.

In 2016, Marc BENAYOUN was appointed Member of the Executive Committee of the EDF Group, Gas and Italy. As such, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Edison, the third-largest Italian energy company. He also oversaw gas procurement activities for the EDF Group, and managed its portfolio of long-term contracts for the transport of natural gas by pipeline and by sea, as well as the assets needed to transport the gas to the delivery points.

In addition to his corporate responsibilities, Marc BENAYOUN also speaks regularly at colleges and universities (Mines ParisTech, Paris-Dauphine University, Bocconi University in Milan), where he discusses the structure of the electricity and gas industries, the regulations that govern them, as well as the topic of leadership in the energy transition. In 2018, he received the Economist of the Year award from the Italian Association of Energy Economists.

In July 2019, Marc BENAYOUN was appointed Group Senior Executive Vice President, Customers & Energy Services. In this capacity, he is heading the Commerce Division and supervises energy services related entities, including Dalkia. Marc BENAYOUN also serves as a member of the EDF Trading Board of Directors, Chairman of the Edison Board of Directors, and supervises the EDF Group’s gas procurement platform in Italy.

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@brunobensasson

Bruno Bensasson is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and École des Mines of Paris. He started his career in 1998 at the Autorité de Sureté Nucléaire (French nuclear security authority) as head of a Regional Division (Lower and Upper Normandy) then as became the Chief of Staff of the CEO. From 2004 to 2006, he was the technical adviser responsible for the environment, new energies and nuclear energy at the office of the Minister of Industry, then adviser at the General Secretariat of the office of the President of the Republic in charge of industry, the environment and transport. He joined SUEZ in 2007 as Director of economic studies at the Department of development and strategy. In 2011, he became a member of GDF SUEZ's Executive Committee as Director for strategy and sustainable development.

He was appointed CEO of GDF SUEZ Energie France in early 2013 and, in July 2014, became the Vice-President of GDF SUEZ Energie Europe in charge of development and renewable generation. In 2016, he became the CEO of Engie Afrique. In May 2018, Bruno Bensasson became the Group Senior Executive Vice-President responsible for Renewable Energies and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EDF Renouvelables.

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Béatrice Buffon began her career as Finance Manager at COGETHERM, an EDF subsidiary specialized in the development of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects. In 2001, she joined SIIF Energies, which later became EDF Renewables, where she would take up office as Project Director in 2003. Her activities focused on developing onshore wind farm and biomass projects, as well as offshore wind farm projects in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2009, she undertook the functions of Deputy Executive Director of POWEO Renewable Energies.

She returned to EDF Renewables in 2010 as Director of Development for large-scale, ground-mounted solar power projects; then in 2011, she became Director of Development for Offshore Wind Power France. In April 2012, her team was awarded the contract for three offshore projects in France, representing a total generation capacity of 1500 MW. The development phase of these projects is now complete and, in August 2019, construction began of the first offshore wind farm in France, with a further two due to kick-off this year.

In June 2019, she and her teams were also awarded the contract for the construction and subsequent operation of the Dunkirk offshore wind farm in the Northern part of France. Her team is also working on a pilot project for a floating wind farm in the Mediterranean. In 2014, Béatrice Buffon became Executive Vice President of EDF Renewables, in charge of renewable marine energies and a member of the EDF Renewables Executive Committee. She is a graduate from both the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. She is Chevalier de l'Ordre National Du Mérite, a distinction awarded by the President of France for distinguished civil and military achievements.

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Christophe Carval holds a degree in electrical engineering from HEI Lille, and joined the EDF group in 1982. He has held several management positions in Departmental, Regional and Inter-regional Units in the electricity and gas distribution sector. In 2007, he was appointed to head up the project to create and manage the new Shared Services Division of the EDF group. He was the Director of Human Resources, Health & Safety, and the Enedis Transformation project from 2014.

Since July 2017, he holds the position of Group Senior Executive Vice-President, Human Resources Division.

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Xavier Girre is a graduate of HEC and of the Institut d’Etudes Politique de Paris (IEP), and an alumni of ENA. He also holds a Master’s degree in business law. Xavier Girre began his career at the French National Audit Office in 1995, before joining the Veolia Environnement group in 1999 where he spent twelve years and notably held the positions of Group Risk and Auditing Director of Veolia Group, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Finance of Veolia Transportation then of Veolia Environmental Services. From 2011 to 2015, he was Deputy CEO, CFO of La Poste Group and then XAnge Private Equity CEO. Xavier Girre joined EDF in 2015 as France CFO, before being appointed Group Senior Executive Vice-President, responsible for the Finance Division.

Xavier Girre is, in addition, Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of La Française des Jeux.

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Véronique Lacour

Véronique Lacour holds a postgraduate diploma in Information Systems from the University of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. Véronique Lacour started her career at Thales in 1987, where she gained solid experience in Information Systems, before taking up the position of Chief Information Officer for a new Division of Thales in 2004. Between 2007 and 2009, she managed the HR information systems shared services of such Division. She moved to Safran in 2009 where she held the position, first, of Chief Information Officer for Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly Snecma), and later, in 2013, Vice-President Improvement Initiatives, where she managed continuous improvement and transformation initiatives. She went on to become Vice-President Programs for Safran Analytics, and was involved in the creation of this new Big Data-focused entity as part of the Group’s digital transformation strategy.

She joined EDF on 1 December 2016 as Group Senior Executive Vice-President, Transformation and Operational Effectiveness and is a member of the Executive Committee. She is tasked with directing the Group’s activities in the areas of information systems, purchasing, property, consultancy and tertiary services and IT.

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Cédric Lewandowski

Cédric Lewandowski is a graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and graduate of Advanced Studies (DEA) of Geopolitics (Paris-VIII), Cédric Lewandowski began his career at EDF in 1998 as Chief of Staff of the President of EDF from 1998 to 2004, then Director of Transport and Electric Vehicles of Electricity of France from 2005 to 2008. He was Director of EDF Collectivités at the Trading Department of EDF from 2008 to 2012, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company H4 from 2009 to 2012, Director of the Safidi Company from 2009 to 2012, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tiru Company from 2009 to 2012. He was then appointed Director of the Civil and Military Cabinet of the Minister of Defense in May 2012 to mid-2017. From July 2017 to mid-2019, he was Executive Director of the EDF Group in charge of the Innovation, Strategy and Programming Division, Chairman of the Executive Committee of EDF Pulse Croissance Holding, and member of the Board of Directors of Enedis, as well as, Vice-President of the World Energy Council (2018-2019). He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Electricité de Strasbourg (since February 2018) and President of the Association française de l’éclairage (lit. French Association for Lighting, AFE) since June 2018.

Cédric Lewandowski is a "Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur", a Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit, and an Officer of the National Order of Mali.

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Alexandre Perra, is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and holds a Master’s degree in modern literature from Paris IV-Sorbonne. Alexandre Perra began his career at Thales in 2007 when he joined the Strategy Department, before becoming head of communications, and then head of media relations of Thales International. In 2012, he has held the position of Deputy Director of Group Communications and is primarily responsible for media relations and international communications.

He joined EDF as Executive Director attached to the Chairman and CEO of EDF. In this capacity, he was in charge of executive coordination and governmental relations. He took part in the definition of the 2030 horizon, the company’s strategy, first implemented in 2015, and worked on several strategic matters for the Group.

In 2017, Alexandre Perra worked on EDF’s strategy in electricity storage. Since then, he has been in charge of the Electricity Storage Plan, which aims to increase the Group’s storage capacity up to 15GW up to 2035, by doubling EDF’s investments in research and development in this area. In 2017, he launched project Y, which mobilizes young employees under the age of 35 to accelerate EDF's digital transformation.

Alexandre Perra is also Citelum’s administrator and part of the audit committee since 2018.

He is a member of the Franco-British Young Leaders since 2017. Alexandre Perra is married and has 2 children.

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Simone Rossi graduates of the University of Bocconi (Milan) in business administration. Simone Rossi began his career as a consultant, firstly at KPMG Consulting in corporate finance, then from 1996 at McKinsey & Company, where he mainly specialised in the sectors of energy, financial institutions, and information and communication technologies. In 2004, he joined Edison SpA in Milan (Italy) as Head of Strategy, before being promoted to become Director of Planning, Control and IT in 2007. At the end of 2009, he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG), a company based in Baltimore in the United States. He then became Chief Financial Officer of EDF Energy in April 2011. In March 2015, Simone Rossi was appointed EDF group Senior Executive Vice-President, International Division. Since 1 November 2017, he is the Chief Executive Officer of EDF Energy and Group Senior Executive Vice-President of EDF.

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Pierre Todorov is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (Ulm) and the École Nationale d’Administration and holder of an advanced teaching degree in philosophy. Pierre Todorov was an auditor then Counsel at the French Council of State from 1986 to 1990. He then joined Lagardère Group, where he held a range of responsibilities in the media branch, particularly serving as International Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Filipacchi. In 1997, he was appointed General Secretary of Accor Group, a position he held until 2008. Between 2008 and 2011, he was partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells LLP, then joined PSA Peugeot Citroën in 2011, as General Secretary, member of the Executive Management Committee.

Pierre Todorov has been EDF group General Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee since 2 February 2015.

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@xursat

Xavier Ursat

Xavier Ursat is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and Télécom Paris. Xavier Ursat  joined EDF in 1991, first holding various positions in the hydraulic engineering department until 2002. He oversaw the construction of EDF’s hydraulic engineering centres and contributed to international projects, especially in South America. From 2002 to 2005, he was a special advisor to EDF’s Deputy General Manager in charge of Generation and Engineering. From 2005 to 2007, he was Assistant Director of the Alps Generation Unit in Grenoble and from 2007 to 2010, Director of the Southwest Generation Unit in Toulouse. From 2010 to 2014, he was successively Deputy Manager and Manager of the Hydraulic Generation & Engineering Division. Since March 2015, Xavier Ursat has been Group Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of New Nuclear Projects and Engineering.

He is also a director of EDF Renouvelables, chairman of the Supervisory and Steering Committee of EDVANCE and a member of the Supervisory and Steering Board of Framatome. He is also chairman of the SFEN.

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Paul-Marie Dubée joined the French Treasury in 2008. He is in charge of international financial summit preparation as well as preparing France positions at the IMF. He then joined the Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring to assist companies in their turnaround.

In 2012, he joined the Inspection Générale des Finances, the government body in charge of auditing all the departments within the French Ministry of Finance. He will be entrusted with various auditing and counselling missions.Paul-Marie DUBÉE joined the EDF Group in 2014 as deputy to the CAP 2030 Project Manager.

In 2016, he joined Enedis as head of customer relations and then head of the operations department for the Languedoc Roussillon business unit (1,8 million customers). Paul-Marie Dubée graduated from the École Polytechnique, Télécom Paris and the Paris School of Economics.

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