Guillaume Pepy is a high-ranking French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 civil servant and is, since February 2008, president of SNCF

SNCF

The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

, the French national rail authority. He is also Chairman of Eurostar

Eurostar

Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....

 and Deputy-Chairman of the Keolis Group.

The President of the Republic 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.

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

Voyages-sncf.com

Voyages-sncf.com, founded in June 2000, is an Internet travel agency website, subsidiary of the French SNCF and Expedia. It is the first French Electronic commerce website in volume...

, of which he was Chairman from 1998 to 2006, and of iDTGV

IDTGV

iDTGV is a TGV high speed train service from SNCF, the French national railroad company. It only sells its tickets online. Carriages are separated into two zones: iDZen for customers wishing a quiet trip, where mobile phones and loud conversations are banned, and iDZap for customers looking for...

.

In 2003, Louis Gallois

Louis Gallois

Louis René Fernand Gallois is a French businessman and currently the CEO of EADS.-Education:...

 appointed him Group Chief Operating Officer. Anne-Marie Idrac

Anne-Marie Idrac

Anne-Marie Idrac is a French politician, member of the Nouveau Centre political party, was French Minister of State for foreign trade.- Biography :...

, Chairman in the last 20 months of the term begun by Louis Gallois

Louis Gallois

Louis René Fernand Gallois is a French businessman and currently the CEO of EADS.-Education:...

 (July 2006- February 2008), confirmed him in this position.

He was also the prime mover in the launch of the Railteam

Railteam

Railteam is an alliance of seven European high-speed rail operators. The aim of the group is to offer integrated high-speed rail travel between major European cities and to compete with airlines on punctuality, environment, pricing and speed. Coordinated departures are intended to give consistent...

 European high speed rail operator alliance.

Educational Background

Guillaume Pepy attended the Ecole alsacienne high school in Paris. He is a graduate of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris

Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris

The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , simply referred to as Sciences Po , is a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France, specialised in the social sciences. It has the status of grand établissement, which allows its admissions process to be highly selective...

 and a former alumnus of ENA

Ena

-Organizations:* Escuela Nacional de Archiveros, La primera institución especializada en Archivos* École nationale d'administration, a school where many of France's senior officials are instructed* English Nationalist Alliance* Education Networks of America...

, 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

Michel Durafour

Michel Durafour is a Jewish, French left wing politician. He served in many government posts under Jacques Chirac, Raymond Barre and Michel Rocard, and was mayor of Saint-Étienne from 1965 to 1977....

 and the Minister of Labour Martine Aubry

Martine Aubry

Martine Aubry is a French politician. She has been the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party since November 2008 and Mayor of Lille since March 2001...

. In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Sofres group with special responsibility for business development.