Anne Lauvergeon

« Quel avenir pour l'énergie nucléaire ? » : Anne Lauvergeon at the 18th International Festival of Geography at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges

Anne Lauvergeon (born August 2 1959 in Dijon, Côte-d'Or, France), is a French businesswoman, and president of Areva. In 2006, she was ranked by the magazine Forbes as the eighth-most powerful woman in the world, second-most in Europe and most powerful in France.

[edit] Biography

In 1978 she enrolled in the École Normale Supérieure, taking the Agrégation in physics before joining the Corps de Mines. In 1983 she enrolled in her first training course with the Corps de Mines, in the iron and steel industry, at Usinor. A second training course, in 1984, took place with the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique, where she studied chemical safety in Europe. From 1985 to 1988, she was with the l'Inspection générale des carrières (IGC). In 1990, she was placed in charge of the mission for the international economy and foreign trade by French President François Mitterrand. The following year, she became assistant secretary general. She was then named “sherpa”, i.e. personal representative to the president, and charged with preparing international meetings such as the G7 summit. In 1995, she joined the banking sector, and became a managing partner of Lazard. In March 1997, she was named general director of Alcatel, before becoming part of the group's executive committee.

[edit] Leadership in nuclear power

In June 1999, she was named CEO of the group Cogema, succeeding Jean Syrota, who resigned under pressure from the The Greens. In July 2001, she merged Cogema, Framatome and other companies to create Areva. Taking the head of the new company, she entered the small circle of women directing international corporations. The 2006 Fortune Global 500, published by the American magazine Fortune, ranked her as the 2^nd most powerful women in Europe, behind Patricia Russo, future president of Alcatel-Lucent. In 2006, she remains as the woman directing the most employees in the world.

In 2001, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg chose her to chair the "national contest of assistance the creation of companies of innovating technologies".

In September of 2002 she became the subject of a controversy: the daily economic newspaper Les Échos uncovered a report from the French court of auditors, criticizing her compensation (salary of €305,000 with bonus of €122,000), considered to be substantially higher than that of leaders of other public companies, and especially her golden parachute of two years' wages. In spite of rumours of resignation, Anne Lauvergeon kept her position.

Towards the end of 2006, Areva encountered difficulties with its new European Pressurized Reactor, and expected a delay of 18 months to 3 years according to the French daily newspaper La Tribune^[1] for the delivery of the first of its kind in Finland. The delay may cost €700 million.^[2]

Anne Lauvergeon is also President of the board of directors of École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy^[3] and is a director or board member of Suez, Total S.A., Safran S.A. and Vodafone.^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

[edit] References and sources

1. ^ (French) Areva : la tension monte en Finlande - La Tribune.fr
2. ^ LeMonde.fr : Le retard de l'EPR finlandais va coûter 700 millions d'euros au français
3. ^ Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Nancy : La Lampe - Lettre d'information
4. ^ Suez - Anne Lauvergeon
5. ^ Total - Corporate Web Site - Members of the Board of Directors - Organization - Presentation
6. ^ Safran - About Safran
7. ^ Anne Lauvergeon - Vodafone