Didier Lombard, 63, was previously responsible for technology and strategic partnerships at the national telecommunications carrier, and was selected as CEO during a board meeting on Sunday, the carrier said in a statement
The change in management at France’s biggest telephone operator comes at a crucial time because the organization is in the final stages of a three-year restructuring program.
Despite market concerns over the relatively unknown nature of Lombard, he was viewed as the most likely successor to Breton, who was widely admired in the industry for having steered France Telecom out of a debt crisis in 2002 when it posted a record loss of 20.7bn euros ($26.50bn), one of the largest ever net losses in French corporate history.
The carrier’s financial position in 2002 was so precarious after an ill-fated expansion policy that the French government was forced to coordinate a rescue plan that included a combination of illegal state aid, new management, massive job cuts, and other restructuring activities. This state aid is now the subject of an appeal that France Telecom and the French government lodged against a European Commission after it ordered France Telecom to repay the state.
Breton’s switch to the Finance Ministry followed the Friday resignation of Herve Gaymard after a scandal involving his $18,500-a-month government-funded luxury apartment.
