His mission at the head of Orange, cut short because of his conviction in the arbitration case from which the businessman Bernard Tapie had benefited, last November, must stop on January 31. And he will leave the company with “the feeling of accomplishment”, commented Stéphane Richard during a trip this Wednesday to the Hauts-de-Seine.
“Overall, I leave with a feeling of accomplishment. The company is solid and it also has more internal cohesion. Let’s not forget that in 2010, I arrived in a traumatized company “, in particular by the series of suicides of employees of the former France Telecom between 2008 and 2009, he declared on the occasion of a visit to Orange’s six millionth fiber customer in Plessis-Robinson.
“France, the country with the most fiber in Europe”
“In 2010, there were 60,000 fiber subscribers, so we multiplied this figure by 100. The deployment of optical fiber in France was the great adventure of the decade,” he said, adding that “France is today the country with the most fiber in Europe with 70% of French territory now covered”.
Stéphane Ricard’s mandate ran until mid-2022. But his conviction in the Crédit Lyonnais affair cut it short. More than two years after a general release, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in November 2021 on the fate of the five men initially tried alongside Bernard Tapie in the controversial Crédit Lyonnais arbitration case in 2008 Stéphane Richard was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 euros. He was found guilty of complicity in embezzlement of public funds, but released for the facts of complicity in fraud, the court considering that he did not know that the arbitration was fraudulent.
Three profiles were selected by the Orange selection committee to succeed him as CEO within the framework of a future separate governance: the current Deputy CEO, Ramon Fernandez, the sales manager of the American operator Verizon, Frank Boulben, and the president of Schneider Electric France, Christel Heydemann.
A board meeting on governance was initially scheduled for January 24, but “it is not certain that it will take place on this date”, according to a source familiar with the matter. “What is important is that there is a council that will agree on the new general manager before January 31,” added this source. If the appointment to the post of CEO takes place on time, Stéphane Richard could however remain in place for a few more weeks as non-executive chairman, until the end of his mandate next May, pending the appointment of a successor, according to several inside sources. “Nothing is excluded”, confirms a group executive, emphasizing that “the important thing is to ensure the continuity of the management of the company and that the transition takes place in the best conditions”.