Chief Officers and Vice-Presidents
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Alain BISTON, President & CEO
Alain has been working for more than 25 years in telecoms, with Nortel, then Alcatel-Lucent / Nokia, holding management and leadership positions in R&D, Product Line, Industrial Operations, Sales & Marketing, Business Unit P&L accountability.
He brings to ASN his thorough knowledge of the telecoms industry, his extensive international management background with several postings overseas, and his field-proven customer-facing acumen.
Since 2016, as a Nokia executive, Alain has been Senior VP Customer Operations End2End and until now Senior Vice President in charge of Mobile Network business management.
Alain holds a degree in Information Technology from INSA, Rennes, France. He was also honored with the National Order of Merit in 2006 from the French Minister of Industry.
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Bruno HESTIN, VP End-to-end Business Management
Bruno joined Alcatel Submarine Networks on March 1st, 2020 as end-to-end Business Management VP.
He has been working since 30 years in the telecom industry and spent the last 14 years in an operating and customer facing role across Europe managing execution and P&L for fixed and mobile access, optics, IP, core and microwave projects. Prior to that, he spent 16 years holding several management positions in R&D for Alcatel (including ASN) and start-up telecom companies in Canada.
Bruno holds an Electronic Systems Engineering degree from FIUPSO Orsay Engineering School and completed his last year in Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal. -
Paul GABLA, VP Sales & Marketing
Paul Gabla has been the Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Alcatel Submarine Networks since September 2016.
Paul is a highly respected executive with over 28 years’ experience in the Telecommunications, Aerospace and Defence industries. Prior to returning to ASN, where he worked until the early 2000s, Paul has been Vice President, Asia Pacific for Alcatel’s former Optical Networking division, and has also held senior management roles in Sales & Marketing at Alcatel Alenia Space, Thales and Rockwell Collins.Paul is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (Paris).
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Olivier GAUTHERON, VP R&D
Olivier Gautheron was appointed Technical Director of Alcatel Submarine Networks in 2002 and Chief Technical Officer in 2015.
He started his career at Alcatel-Lucent in 1988 as a junior engineer in fiber optic transmission systems where he contributed to experimental studies of new technologies such as coherent detection, optical amplification and wavelength division multiplexing. In 1999, he was appointed as the leader of the submarine system design team and he is currently in charge of R&D activities at ASN.
Olivier graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (Paris).
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Olivier CHAMBON, VP Project Management
Olivier Chambon has been the Vice President Project Management since January 2023.Description will be available soon. -
Patricia FORNET, VP Industrial Operations
Patricia Fornet has been the Calais Site Director of Alcatel Submarine Networks since June 2014.Since 2010 she has been in charge of the Technical and Research & Development Department for cables and accessories of submarine systems. Her responsibilities were extended to the industrialization activities in 2012 and in 2014 she led the site operational activities.Prior to that, Patricia coordinated the technical support activities for cables and accessories both internally and with customers, as well as being responsible for raw material development and qualifications within the Technical Directorate of ASN in Calais and new cable development projects.At the end of 2012, Patricia was awarded the prize “Ingénieur de l’année” in the Industrial Project category assigned by the magazine Usine Nouvelle in partnership with the “Ingénieurs et Scientifiques de France (CNISF)”. This prize was awarded for the implementation of the industrial projet related to offshore oil & gas platform connections via optical fiber submarine systems. In 1999, she received a medal from “Société Industrielle du Nord de la France” for her proactivity in innovation.Patricia has a Chemical Engineering degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie (Lille). -
Christophe LAMBLING, VP Purchasing
Christophe Lambling joined Alcatel Submarine Networks in October 2016 as the Purchasing Vice President.In February 2016, he was appointed Procurement Director for field force operations at Nokia, implementing several best practices around forecast optimization and rapid intervention, among others. Prior to that, he has worked as the EMEA Project Sourcing Director. His activities included the management of more than 1300 suppliers spread across Services, OEM hardware and Software activities. Christophe has extensive experience in procurement, sales, pre-sales and business planning roles which he has held since joining Nortel in 1994. During the course of his career, he has won the Excellence Circle Award several times, which recognizes individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to their domain of competence.Christophe is a graduate of ESME and EMILYON MBA. -
Jérémie MAILLET, VP Marine Operations
Jeremie Maillet has been the Vice President Marine Operations of Alcatel Submarine Networks since January 2017 and General Manager of ASN Marine (formerly ALDA Marine) since 2015.Jeremie started his career as a Seaman in 1996, after graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Maritime in Marseille, France. He developed broad experience over the years occupying roles such as Engineer, Chief Officer and Master of Operations on Alcatel’s state of-the-art cable ships, working on cable system installation and maintenance both in the telecom and in the Oil & Gas domain. He was promoted to Master onboard of ASN’s cable ship Ile de Batz in January 2009.Jeremie holds a Master's degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Maritime in Marseille, France. -
Christian AUSANNEAU, VP Services
Christian Ausanneau has been Vice President Services of Alcatel Submarine Networks since July 2018.
During his career, Christian has occupied different position in manufacturing environment in Ormes before to move to AAR in Marcoussis in 1994. He joined ASN in 1999 to develop the Maintenance activity where he took the lead in 2002. Then he moved to a Contract Management position and join the Marketing and Sales Department in 2013 as head of EMEAI.Christian holds an Electronics & Electrotechnics Engineering degree from the University of Bordeaux, France -
Jean-Marie BEAUFILS, VP Q&HSE
Jean-Marie Beaufils has been recently appointed Vice President Quality Management & HSE at Alcatel Submarine Networks.
During his career, Jean-Marie has occupied several management positions in Research & Development in transmission at Alcatel. He joined ASN to lead the Submarine Line Terminal department before being assigned to the ASN Singapore office where he spent 7 years mostly as the Asia- Pacific Regional Director. He returned to France as Head of the Sales and Contracting. He was then Vice President Contracts and Permits and subsequently Deputy Vice President Project Management for several years.
Jean-Marie holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Paris), a Master of Science from Imperial College of London and an Executive MBA from Institut Français de Gestion. -
Vincent LARA, CFO
Vincent Lara has been Chief Finance Officer of ASN since April 2018.He joined ASN at the end of 2015 to lead the Finance Transformation, notably restructuring ASN’s operating and financial model, as well as supporting the company in the implementation of a new reporting system and in the simplification of its operational and financial processes.Vincent has developed over the years significant experience in several senior financial positions held at Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia, supporting several strategic initiatives such as the Alcatel-Lucent Finance and Project Controlling practices transformation and the PrOM program implementation. As a Finance Controller, he has also supported the creation of the Projects & Field Operations organization and has held different finance positions in the EMEA region as Controller of the Integration Service Division and as Orange Global Account Controller.He has a Finance Master's degree in Accounting and Management Administration from the Ecole Nationale de Commerce de Paris Bessières (DSCG Diplôme Supérieur de Comptabilité et Gestion). -
Julie LAMBARD, VP Human Resources
Julie Lambard joined Alcatel Submarine Networks as the Human Resources Director in June 2008.Since joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2001, she has held several positions in Human Resources in France, first as an HR Business Partner for Evolium and later in the Mobile Communications Group. She later became the Human Resources Director of the Wireless Organization in France.Julie holds a Degree in French Labour law and a DESS in Human Resources from the IAE of Rennes. -
Pascal RÉMY, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer
At Nokia since 2016, Pascal has served as General Counsel for the Fixed Networks Business Group for 5 years and then for Nokia Enterprise. Prior to that, Pascal held various senior legal positions at Alcatel and Alcatel-Lucent for many years, both on the commercial side – having been the lead counsel for different business lines – and on the corporate side – as the Head of Legal for M&A-Strategy. Before joining Alcatel, Pascal was a counsel at Sema Group (Information Technology) and prior to this at Dassault Electronique (Defense & Electronics), where he started his career.
Pascal holds post-graduate law degrees from University Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and University Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), respectively in European law and in Corporate and tax law. He is also graduated from ESCP Business School (Executive Master in Financial and Fiscal Engineering).
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Marc GENOT, VP BU Oil & Gas
Marc Génot has been appointed Vice President O&G Business Unit in March 2020.
He was previously deputy Vice President Project Management of Alcatel Submarine Networks. Marc joined Alcatel in 1993 and started his career as a electronics engineer in submarine fiber optic transmission equipment specialized in digital signal processing. He subsequently has held several R&D management positions in the radio transmission and terrestrial optical transmission business units, and he was the R&D director of WDM product developments from 2007 to 2010. He then moved to Alcatel Submarine Networks to support its diversification strategy toward O&G market as head of customer project management and business development support.
Marc holds an Electronics Engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale de L’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (Toulouse).
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Christophe BEJINA, VP Information Systems & Organization
As the CIO of ASN (Alcatel Submarine Networks) since 2020, Christophe has been in charge of all the IT programs and services, delivering to all the business entities: R&D, sales, project execution, production, services, marine and support functions. Christophe’s top priorities in this role are digital transformation, IT infrastructure renewal and IS security policy. Between 2016 and 2020, Christophe successively led the global transformation programs for Nokia as well as the Portfolio & Program management function for Group IT. Prior to this and during multiple years, Christophe occupied various R&D leadership functions with Matra, Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), enriched by a two-years experience as an associate within the Corporate Strategy organization at ALU.
Christophe holds an Engineer Diploma in Telecommunications Systems from Telecom ParisTech (previously Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) in Paris, France. Prior to this, he also got a master degree in physical science from the university of Reims.
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Vincent LEMAIRE, VP Special Projects
Vincent Lemaire has been the Vice President Special Projects since January 2023.He had previously been the Vice President Technical Operations of Alcatel Submarine Networks. Vincent joined Alcatel in 1987 and started his career as a research engineer in fiber optic transmission studying coherent detection. He has held several management R&D positions in the submarine business and he was the VP R&D Optics of WDM products from 1999 to 2005. He then moved to the transport sector where he was the GPM for French customers and later the manager of the installation activity for the France Business Unit.Vincent holds an Electronics Engineering degree from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Paris).
Deputies and Sites Directors
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Florence PALACIOS, Site Director, Calais
Florence Palacios received her Master’s Degree in engineering from “SupOptique” (Orsay, France) in 1997, ranking first in her class. She specialized in Optics and Photonics, earning a DEA from Université Paris-Sud XI in the same year. She joined the Alcatel Submarine Networks R&D team in Calais in 1999 as a Project Manager for new fiber qualifications, then becoming Manager of the development project team and Manager of the cable optical team. In 2014, she became manager of the Cable Research, Development and Industrialization department.
In 2019 she decided to leave R&D for management of Calais Quality and Industrialization teams.
Since 2021, she is Calais Site Director. -
Thomas LECOINTE, Operations Director, Calais
Thomas has been working for more than 12 years in telecoms with ASN.
He brings to ASN his knowledge of operations management, skills built during his evolution in ASN and 8 previous years in the automotive industry.
Thomas holds an engineering degree in Industry from ENSAM, Paris, France.
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Tajinder BHAMBRA, Site Director, Greenwich
Tajinder is Site and Manufacturing Director at ASN Greenwich, responsible for the manufacture of ASN’s electronic and optical equipment for subsea and surface applications.
Taj started working for ASN in 1998. He has held multiple leadership positions in Hi-Rel Manufacturing, Materials Management, SAP/IT upgrades implementation and Demand Planning at the S&OP Level. He has overall responsibility for Greenwich facilities, Health and Safety and IO Demand Planning (S&OP). He is known for his creative and pragmatic application of emerging technology and methodologies.
Taj has a degree in Economics and is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply. -
Tony DELPORT, Operations Director, Greenwich
Tony has over 20 years’ experience in telecoms at ASN, focused on the manufacture of PFE, SLTE and Repeaters.
Following management of several departments during the past decade he was appointed the Operations Director, Greenwich at the end of 2020.
He brings to this role a keen focus on skills development, introduction of new technologies and building in quality systems to meet the customer’s needs.
Tony holds a degree in Management and a Masters degree in Climate Change Management from Birkbeck, University of London.
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Hilde NAKSTAD, Site Director, Trondheim
Hilde joined ASN Norway in 1989 and was appointed General Manager of ASN Norway in April 2019. She started off as a researcher and worked on several projects on cable design, transceivers and fibre optic sensors. She has managed several development projects, including fibre optic interrogators, in-well and ocean bottom fibre optic sensor systems. She has held several positions within the company, including manager of R&D group, Applications and Projects.
Hilde holds a Master of Science degree from NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. -
Enrico BANFI, Deputy VP Sales & Marketing
Enrico Banfi has been the Deputy Vice President Sales & Marketing at Alcatel Submarine Networks since late 2016.
Enrico joined the company in 2004 from the Pirelli group, where he held several roles, including Manager of the submarine commercial activity and Vice President of Sales & Marketing. He was the Managing Director of Pirelli’s affiliate company Maristel from 1993 to 1999, and Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Pirelli Submarine Telecom Systems. He started his career in the Oil & Gas sector at the ENI group, Italy’s leading service provider.Enrico holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico University of Milan, Italy.
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Eric BOUVART, Deputy VP O&G Sales & Marketing
Eric Bouvart is in charge of Business Development and diversification within Alcatel Submarine Networks.He was previously in charge of the diversification of ASN in the Oil & Gas market that he continues to manage. Eric has 30 years of experience in Telecommunications, among which more than 20 years in the submarine sector. During his carreer, he has held several positions within ASN including Project Manager, General Manager Marine, Head of Projects (Line & Marine Operations), and Director Oil & Gas.Eric is a graduate of ‘Ecole National Supérieure d’Electricité et de Mécanique (ENSEM) and followed business management education at l’ESSEC. -
Hervé CHAUVIN, Deputy VP Services
Herve Chauvin is Technical Services Director and Services VP deputy since mid 2018.
Herve started his career in 1985 within space and military companies before to join Alcatel Submarine Networks. He has different responsibilities in Quality, Supply Chain & Project Management. He managed submarine cable projects as Network Project Manager, Project Technical Management Director and as Global Project Manager up to mid 2018.
Herve is graduated from the University of Technology of Compiegne (UTC), France. -
Vincent CHEVALIER, Deputy VP Sales & Marketing
Vincent Chevalier is Deputy Vice President in charge of OTTs and Sales & Marketing Americas since July 2018. He was already in charge of Sales & Marketing for the Americas region.Vincent joined former Alcatel Lucent in 2002 and ASN in 2010. Since then, he has been instrumental in the growth of the Alcatel Submarine Network business in the Americas Region.Before joining their submarine division, Vincent has held various executive position in different regions of the Globe for Alcatel Lucent and has spent several years in the America and South America region. -
Mick MCGOVERN, Deputy VP Marine Operations
Mick McGovern has been Deputy Vice President Marine Operations of Alcatel Submarine Networks since October 2014.Mick joined Alcatel-Lucent in 1985 and started his career as a transmission engineer in fiber optics for terrestrial systems. He moved to the submarine division in 1988 and has held various positions within the Marine installation department both offshore and back office. He then took the position of Strategic Projects Director for the implementation of large consortium type projects. In 2003 he became the regional Sales Manager for Africa, India and Northern Europe. In 2009 Mick was appointed as Director of Projects responsible for the contract management of all project implementation. In April 2014 Mick took the position of General Manager Marine operations and was recently appointed Deputy Vice President Marine.Mick holds an Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from the University of Liverpool (UK).