Guillaume Pepy

Guillaume Pepy
Born	(1958-05-26) 26 May 1958 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Sciences Po, ÉNA
Occupation	CEO of SNCF

Guillaume Pepy (born 26 May 1958) is a high-ranking French civil servant, president of the SNCF, the French national rail authority. He is also Chairman of Eurostar and Deputy-Chairman of the Keolis Group.

The President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy appointed him to run the state-owned enterprise on 27 February 2008 for a term of five years. In his Letter of Engagement, the Head of State asked him to make the development and modernisation of the enterprise the priorities of his mandate and that SNCF should enter, body and soul, into the era of development and competition.^[1] He was reconnected for a new term by François Hollande in 2013.

Career at SNCF

Guillaume Pepy joined SNCF for the first time in 1988 as Chief of Staff to the then Chairman, Jacques Fournier. After a stint in various ministerial private offices (1990–1993), he came back as Head of Investment, Economy and Strategy.

In 1997, he was put in charge of Mainline Services and in 1998, became Deputy Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for all passenger activities (TER regional, Transilien Greater Paris suburban services, mainline services, rolling stock and operations). He instituted a new low fares policy designed to boost train occupancy rates using "yield management" flexible pricing techniques. He was also the driving force behind the creation of Voyages-sncf.com, of which he was Chairman from 1998 to 2006, and of iDTGV.

In 2003, Louis Gallois appointed him Group Chief Operating Officer. Anne-Marie Idrac, Chairman in the last 20 months of the term begun by Louis Gallois (July 2006- February 2008), confirmed him in this position.

He was also the prime mover in the launch of the Railteam European high-speed rail operator alliance.

Educational background

Guillaume Pepy attended the École alsacienne high school in Paris. He is a graduate of Sciences Po and a former alumnus of École nationale d'administration, in the Louise Michel year (1984). An Auditor and then Master of Requests at the Conseil d'État ("Council of State", the highest French Administrative Court - 1987), he worked in a number of ministerial private offices, was a technical advisor to Budget Minister Michel Charasse (1988), and Chief of Staff for the Minister for Public Service Michel Durafour and the Minister of Labour Martine Aubry. In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Sofres group with special responsibility for business development.

Private life

From 1986 until 2004, Pepy shared a relationship with Richard Descoings. Due to fear of stigma, this relationship was kept secret until it was acknowledged at Descoing's funeral in 2012.^[2]

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