Jacques Gounon

Jacques Gounon
Born	(1953-04-25) 25 April 1953 Créteil, France
Nationality	French
Education	École Polytechnique
Occupation	CEO Eurotunnel (2005-present)

Jacques Gounon (born 1953) is a French business executive. He has been the Chairman of Eurotunnel since 14 June 2005.

Early life

Gounon is a former pupil at the prestigious École Polytechnique in Paris.

Career

Between 1977 and 1981 he was regional chief for the Direction Départementale de l'Équipement (DDE) for the Indre-et-Loire department in west-central France. Between 1981 and 1986 he served, initially as Engineer in Chief, and subsequently as Co-Director General of the Paris Syndicat intercommunal de traitement des ordures ménagères (the organisation responsible for garbage collection).

Between 1986 and 1990 Gounon was Director General of the Comatec group, becoming, between 1991 and 1993, Director of Business Development with the construction firm, Eiffage.

He served as an Industry Advisor to Michel Giraud between 1993 and 1995, and from 1995 to 1996 he was Chief of Staff to Anne-Marie Idrac. In 1996 he became Deputy General Manager with GEC-Alstom.

He became Ingénieur en chef des Ponts et Chaussées (Engineer in Chief of [France's] Roads and Bridges).

He joined the Eurotunnel board in 2004, becoming Chairman on 14 June 2005. He launched a critical debt restructuring plan. The plan failed to gain support, but following a bankruptcy a subsequent restructuring was accepted. On 9 March 2007 he became Chief Executive of Groupe Eurotunnel S.A. (GET SA), which had re-emerged with a new capital structure and a new name.

In November 2009 Gounon was honoured in the BFM-Awards as "Discovery of the year".