Christel Heydemann

Christel Heydemann became CEO of Orange in April 2022, making her the first woman to lead the French telecom giant in its history. She arrived from Schneider Electric with a mandate to modernize a company serving 340 million customers across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She fully delivered on her “Lead the Future” strategic plan, closing 2025 with €40.4 billion in revenue, Ebitda growth of 3.8%, and organic cash flow rising 8.3% to €3.7 billion, while adding 19.6 million net new customers across France, Europe, and Africa in a single year. In February, Heydemann unveiled a five-year strategy called “Trust the Future” that positions Orange the trusted partner for everyday digital life, serving individuals, organizations, and communities, targeting €600 million in annual value from AI by 2028, built on sovereign cloud, cybersecurity services, and agentic AI capabilities. Her MWC 2026 keynote, in which she declared that AI is becoming “the operating layer of our societies” and that telcos must evolve into “active shields of the digital world,” landed as one of the most discussed speeches of the conference—a signal of the increasingly strategic role she has carved out for Orange, and herself, in Europe’s technology future.