Thierry Francou has become President of GIAT Industries, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE) and CEO of EURENCO.

“It is a great pride to lead the GIAT Industries Group and its subsidiaries SNPE and EURENCO, whose history and technological and human heritage form the foundations that enable us to conquer new markets today,” Thierry Francou commented.

Thierry Francou is a Pyrotechnic Engineer graduated of Ensta BRETAGNE engineering school and has a PhD in aerodynamics and detonic of Poitiers University France.

From 1994 to 2006, he holds several responsibilities at the French Ministry of Defense (Direction Générale de l’Armement), including Director of the M51 ballistic missile propulsion program, Director of the energetics materials research and development program and Head of a demining unit.

In 2006, he joined the Cabinet of the Minister of Ecology as Advisor in charge of industrial and natural risks, nuclear and waste management. He became Armament and Space advisor at the French Embassy in Italy in 2007 before joining, in 2010, HERAKLES, a Safran group company specializing in solid propulsion, as Director of the Space Business Unit.

In 2015, he took over responsibility for the project to integrate the defense and space activities provided by Airbus and Safran and was appointed Chief Executive Officer Strategy and Transformation and President France of Ariane Group, the world leader in the space sector.

GIAT Industries is a SAS controlling 50% of KNDS, the European defense industry holding company grouping the companies of the Nexter and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann groups and 100% of SNPE.

SNPE is the parent company of the EURENCO Group; it also rehabilitates former industrial sites whose activity has been discontinued, to enable them to be sold and re-industrialized and to manage guarantees for transferred sites.

EURENCO is the European leader in Energetic Materials with a full range of propellants, explosives, combustible items and additives for Strategic markets: Defense & Security, Space, Oil & Gas, Fuel Additives. EURONCO’s explosive filling and propelling charge solutions are customized for the most complex applications: warheads, missiles, bombs, underwater weapons and small, medium and large caliber munitions.