Those who were around the table of the RATP Board of Directors this Thursday 1is September will remember. Catherine Guillouard, the CEO, showed her emotion as never before when announcing her resignation “for personal reasons”. She will leave her post at the end of September. This only child, who grew up in Cannes, chose at the age of 57 to let go of the reins of the Parisian public transport group to devote herself to her role as “caregiver” with his parents, far from Paris and the Régie. A decision that this boss made in July. The state tried to dissuade him, but “those who know her know her originality, her whole character and her ability to make strong personal decisions”notes one of his relatives.
Patroness of the RATP since 2017, when she succeeded Elisabeth Borne, who became Minister of Transport, renewed in 2019 for five years, Catherine Guillouard is one of the few women whose name comes up systematically to take the direction of a large group. , especially if it has the State as a shareholder. The enarque with small round glasses has been cited for Air France-KLM – where she worked for ten years –, Engie or even very recently for the management of EDF, which Jean-Bernard Lévy must leave soon.
Summer 2021, at the microphone of Léa Salamé (“Powerful Women”), this admirer of Marguerite Yourcenar admitted to being ambitious, but obviously not to the point of sacrificing an important moment in her personal life. A rare move among bosses. Sign of a change of era? She waives a salary of 450,000 euros per year. Catherine Guillouard will however retain her “non-executive” responsibilities, in particular her mandates on the board of directors of Airbus or KPN, the Dutch telecom operator.
A phase of radical transformation
This departure opens a period of uncertainty at RATP at a strategic time. Firstly because of the social re-entry. The unions are at gunpoint while waiting “the government’s decision whether or not to put pension reform on the table”, warns Frédéric Ruiz, CFE-CGC central union representative. The CGT announced a strike on September 29 for wage demands.
The company is going through a phase of radical transformation, which Catherine Guillouard led ” with efficiency “ depending on the state – or with “brutality” according to the unions. Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, praised his “good management of one of the first transport networks in the world and the implementation of the decarbonization plan”. For the CEO, who spoke in a message to employees, “these five years have been a tremendous human and collective adventure. The RATP group has become the third largest urban public transport operator in the world. Together, we have considerably accelerated its transformation to make it today a key player in France and on the international scene. We have laid the groundwork to be ready for the opening up to competition”.
You have 42.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.