Arcep

Up until then, François Lions had been Arcep’s Deputy Director-General and Head of the “Mail, Parcel and Broadcasting” department.

 A graduate of the École Polytechnique, François Lions is a member of the Corps of Engineers. He began his career at France Telecom where he held technical, sales and management positions in the areas of specialised networks, network information and traffic management systems and, lastly, regional affairs.

In 1992, François Lions joined the Directorate of General Regulation, DRG (Direction de la Réglementation Générale), and later the Directorate-General of Posts and Telecommunications, DGPT (Direction générale des postes et télécommunications), where he contributed to the process of opening the telecommunications sector up to competition. In particular, he implemented the first price and accounting supervision mechanisms.

François Lions joined Arcep when it was first created, in January 1997, heading up the Economics and Competition department, and later the Economics and Forward-planning department, up until 2004. In 2005, he was appointed Deputy Director-General, and also became head of the Postal activities department in 2011.

François Lions is coming to replace Philippe Distler whose term as a member of the Executive Board has come to an end. Arcep applauds the tremendous contribution he made to the Authority’s work. Philippe Distler participated in Arcep’s creation in 1997 and had played a major role ever since. 

The Arcep Executive Board has seven members: Sébastien Soriano (Chair), Serge Abiteboul, Joëlle Cottenye, Emmanuel Gabla, Monique Liebert-Champagne, Martine Lombard and François Lions. Three of them, including the Chair, are appointed by the President of the French Republic. The other four are appointed, respectively, by the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate. All of the Board members are appointed for an irrevocable and non-renewable six-year term.