Orange has announced that it has accepted the departure of its President and CEO, condemned Wednesday in the TACIE case, after a meeting of its Board of Directors.
Le Monde
It appears in cassation but will not remain at the head of the telecom giant. Sentenced to one year in prison and 50,000 euros fine for complicity in diversion of public funds in the Capie case, the CEO of Orange, Stéphane Richard, at the time director of the Minister of the Minister of the Minister of the Minister Economy Christine Lagarde, presented his resignation to his board of directors (CA), meeting in the evening of Wednesday, November 24th.
At the end of the meeting, the Council said, in a statement, to take note of Mr. Richard’s decision. His departure will be effective from setting up a new governance, no later than January 31. The Board of Directors also said to continue the research process involved in a few months in order to set up a new governance.
Contrasting union reactions
Earlier in the day, Orange unions reacted in a contrast to Stéphane Richard’s condemnation, oscillating between calls for resignation and the need to guarantee the continuity of the governance of the telecom giant.
“We have experienced pubarmed presidents overnight for various crises: financial, social … we do not necessarily want to cross this period again,” said BFM Business the President of the CFE Group’s first union -CGC Orange, Sébastien Crozier. In the same vein, the CFDT, the second union of the group, recalled “its attachment to maintain a stability of the company in the interest of all employees”.
For its part, South PTT, which has a representative to the Board, had estimated, in a statement, that Mr. Richard had to “now resign from his CEO functions of the Orange group”.