Denis Ranque

Born in 1952, Denis Ranque is a leading French businessman and member of the CMA CGM Board of Directors.

An engineering graduate of the École polytechnique (1970) and Corps des Mines, he began his career at the French Ministry for Industry where he held various positions in the energy sector. He joined the Thomson Group in 1983 as Planning Director and was appointed Space Affairs Director in the Tubes Électroniques division the following year.

In 1986, he was made head of the Tubes Hyperfréquences department and when the division spun off in 1988 under the name Thomson Tubes Électroniques (TTE), he was appointed CEO and then Chairman.

In April 1992, Denis Ranque became Chairman and CEO of Thomson Sintra Activités Sous-Marines. Four years later, Thomson-CSF and GEC-Marconi made him CEO of their sonar systems joint venture, Thomson Marconi Sonar.

In January 1998, Denis Ranque was made Chairman and CEO of Thomson-CSF, which became Thales in 2000 due to the merger with Dassault Électronique and the takeover of British firm Racal Electronics. It was a position he would hold until May 2009.

Between 2001 and June 2012, he was Chairman of the Board at the MINES ParisTech, President of the Cercle de l'Industrie, an association uniting France’s biggest industrial companies and Chairman of the Board of Technicolor. He was also Director of France’s FSI (Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement) board from 2011 to 2012, and Director of CGG Veritas from 2010 to 2012.

In March 2013, Denis Ranque was Chairman of the Board of Airbus Group SE, Member of the Board of Directors of Saint Gobain and Scilab Enterprises and Member of the Board of Directors at the CMA CGM Group.

Denis Ranque is an officer of the French Légion d'honneur and the German equivalent of the Ordre national du Mérite.