About WEC

WEC Chair

Pierre Gadonneix, born on 10 January 1943 in New York, has PhD in business economics from the Harvard Business School, is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (1962) and of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs, and has a degree in economics. An experienced businessman, Pierre Gadonneix has spent the major part of his career in industry.

Pierre Gadonneix, EDF’s Chairman and CEO since 15 September 2004, has launched and steered the EDF Group Development Plan for profitable growth, mainly in Europe. Under his impetus, EDF SA confirmed its financial recovery and successfully took joint control of Edison, Italy’s third energy supply company, with Italian industrial players.

In 1976, Pierre Gadonneix was appointed as technical advisor to the Minister of Industry and Research. Before that, he worked as Director of the Institut de Développement Industriel (IDI), the leading French investment trust specializing in SME’s. He joined the institute in 1972, first as project manager and then as department manager. In 1969, Pierre Gadonneix set up a computer service company, called SEFI, employing around fifty engineers. He managed the business for two years until its takeover by a major industrial group in 1972. Pierre Gadonneix began his career in 1966 with the Elf Aquitaine Group, as an engineer in the Computing Department, and then at the Commercial Division of Aquitaine Organico. Pierre Gadonneix was member of the Boards of major industrial groups, including EDF (78/87), Elf-Erap (88/95), Usinor (82/87), Renault (78/87), SNCF (83/87) and France Telecom (98/03). Pierre Gadonneix published a doctoral thesis at Harvard in 1975 under the title: «An attempt to meet the US challenge in the French computer industry». He also taught economics at the Ecole Polytechnique for 10 years (from 1983 to 1992). An Officer in the National Order of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Merit and of the Order of Arts and Letters, Pierre Gadonneix is married with three children. Cette page en français