Neel Mehta
Laurent Collet-Billon, a former executive at France’s defense procurement agency and representative of the state’s golden share in Thales, has been elected into the company’s board of directors following Bruno Parent’s resignation as board member.
The company said Wednesday Bertrand Le Meur, a general armaments engineer, will replace replace Collet-Billon as the French state’s representative.
Collet-Billon will serve as board member until Thales’ annual general meeting to approve the company’s 2015 financial statements.
Most recently, he was chief executive officer of DGA since 2008, and he has held several leadership positions at the agency throughout his 40-year tenure.
He has served as manager of the air-to-ground nuclear armament program; director of the observation, telecommunications and information program office; director for weapons systems; and deputy head of the agency.
Collet-Billon also spent two years at Alcatel-Lucent as senior vice president for defense and security matters, and earlier in his career, he was a technical advisor to André Giraud, France’s defense minister at that time.
Meanwhile, Le Meur is also a veteran at DGA, joining the agency in 1990 and most recently serving as head of industrial affairs and economic intelligence at its strategy directorate.
