Altice has named telecoms veteran Michel Paulin as CEO of its French mobile operator SFR, completing Michel Combes’ management “dream team”. Paulin replaces Eric Denoyer, who steps down after 11 years to join the board.
Telecoms investor Altice (AMS:ATC) has named telecoms veteran Michel Paulin as CEO of its French mobile operator SFR, completing Michel Combes’ management “dream team”. Paulin replaces Eric Denoyer, who steps down after 11 years to join the board.
Combes, chairman of the board at SFR and COO at Altice, said: “I am proud and happy to welcome Michel as head of SFR’s executive committee. Since meeting at [l’Ecole] Polytechnique, we have enjoyed a relationship based on trust and friendship and we have always wanted to work with each other. Our personal and professional relationship will be yet another strength at SFR. His vast experience and incredible knowledge of telecoms – both in France and abroad, in fixed-line and mobile – will enable SFR to accelerate the recovery now underway, and to become the leader in high-speed networks and content.”
Paulin began his career at France Telecom (now Orange) and then became a consultant at McKinsey, advising clients in France and the EU, before joining IT group Bull. In 1999, he joined LDCom, which became Neuf Cegetel, where he was appointed CEO. He and his team led Neuf Cegetel to become France’s number two fixed-line operator, which listed in 2006 before becoming part of SFR in 2008. After joining Louis Dreyfus Commodities as head of operations, Paulin took over as head of Méditel, the second largest Moroccan operator. He has degrees from l’Ecole Polytechnique and l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.