Orange CEO to Step Down After Being Found Guilty

Orange CEO Stephane Richard will leave the company by the end of January 2022. He has resigned after 11 years at the helm. He was previously handed a one-year suspended prison sentence related to his time as part of the French government.

Orange said in a statement that, following the verdict by the Paris Appeal Court, it had taken note of Richard’s decision to hand over his mandate as chairman and CEO and accepted his resignation. The move will take effect once a new governance structure has been appointed by 31 January 2022 at the latest and Richard will continue his role until then.

Richard’s decision to resign following the conclusion of a long-running case linked to his role in the government as chief of staff to finance minister Christine Lagarde in 2008. The case related to a €400 million state pay-out to late businessman Bernard Tapie at the time. Tapie had accused the government of fraud when he sold a stake in sportswear company Adidas to a state-backed bank in 1992. Richard was cleared of fraud, but convicted of complicity and also fined €50,000 after a judge ruled he had committed grave acts by favoring the interests of Tapie at the expense of those of the state.

During more than a decade at the company, Orange credited Richard with restoring an appeased working environment after the social crisis, sparked by employee suicides. It also pointed to his work in transforming Orange into a multi-service operator across Europe and Africa. In terms of successors, the company already has two deputy CEOs in Gervais Pellissier and Ramon Fernandez, both of whom would be likely candidates.