Jean-Pierre FARANDOU

Bio

Since January 1, 2020, Jean-Pierre Farandou has chaired the SNCF, which has become a wholly state-owned public limited company, the parent company of the unified public group and owns five companies: SNCF Réseau and its subsidiary SNCF Gares&Connexions, SNCF Voyageurs, SNCF Fret, Geodis and Keolis. His appointment in the fall of 2019 is part of the implementation of the Law for a New Rail Pact adopted in June 2018. After starting his career with the American mining company Amax in Denver, Colorado, Jean-Pierre Farandou joined SNCF in 1981. He then worked in all transport professions - switchman, train driver, regulator - and passed through all levels of operational management. He launched three TGV lines: Paris-Lille in 1993 as project manager, Thalys in 1996 as Managing Director of Thalys International, an SNCF subsidiary, and the TGV Méditerranée in 2001 as Deputy Director of Main Lines. He then managed the SNCF Rhône-Alpes region, whose TER network is the largest in France, and then took the position of Managing Director of Keolis Lyon, operator of buses, metros and streetcars in Lyon. In 2006, as a member of the SNCF Executive Committee, he created and managed the SNCF Proximités branch, which includes Transilien, TER, Intercités and the Keolis/Effia Group. In 2012, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the SNCF Group and then became Chairman of the Executive Board of Keolis, a specialist in urban transport, a position he held for seven years. Jean-Pierre Farandou also held the position of Director of HR Executives from 1998 to 2000. In 2017, he received the grand prize from the Humania circle, which rewards a HR Director who has become Chairman. As Chairman and CEO of the SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou and his management team intend to deploy the public company's strategy around the development of the railway in France. He is positioning the SNCF group as a key player in the response to society's challenges, such as the climate and environmental emergency and territorial cohesion, at a time when the company is taking up the challenge of opening up the market to full competition. In this sense, our raison d'être was written into the company's articles of association in 2022, affirming the Group's ambition to "act for a society on the move, in solidarity and sustainable" through precise and measurable commitments. Jean-Pierre Farandou has a project to double the share of rail in passenger and freight transport by 2030-2035 - a project that he has formalized in a contribution entitled "Rail against Carbon. Doubling the role of the train for a real climate transition" published under the aegis of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation in February 2022. In it, he reminds us of the ecological imperative to massively increase the use of rail throughout France, in harmony with the regions and passengers and in complementarity with all sustainable modes of transport. This "X2", a lever for economic, social, cultural and demographic dynamism and improved quality of life, is also an opportunity to reaffirm the European leadership of the French rail industry and the ecosystem of economic players that depends on it. In addition to his activities at Keolis, Jean-Pierre Farandou was President of the GIE Objectif transport public (2013-2015) and of the Union des Transports Publics et ferroviaires (2014-2017). He was also President of the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France (2012-2014). Jean-Pierre Farandou is an engineer of the Mines de Paris and an officer of the Legion of Honor.