The presence of a CEO of the calibre of Stephane Richard, the boss of Orange, the bar of a court is not common. At least in France.

The State, which is the main shareholder of the operator, has laid the decor. If Stéphane Richard had to go to a conviction, he should resign from his functions. In the contrary case, the trial Tapie would only impact is very marginal on Orange. Stéphane Richard has done everything to draw a line of separation between the group and its cause. His lawyer, without any relationship with the company, defends it as a staff. At the end of February, Stéphane Richard confided, "to be organized" to deal with these four weeks of the hearing. Before the start of the trial, he had taken the feather to apply to the employees of the company, via his blog on the group's intranet. He explains the reasons of his appearance, stating that he "intends to defend and challenge the charges against him".

"there was no personal enrichment of Stéphane Richard in this case. His integrity is not questioned."

A close to the CEO of Orange

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His presence at the court, four afternoons per week, "does not affect the operation Orange", corroborates in-house. The board of directors of the operator has been very picky on this point, raised already in the last year at the time of the renewal of the mandate of the CEO. Several impact studies have been carried out, focusing particularly on the consequences of this affront on the image of the company. They would ultimately be very minimal, internal and external.

"there was no personal enrichment of Stéphane Richard in this case. His integrity is not questioned," said a close. That's why the benevolence of the employees in respect of their CEO. "We have done some internal surveys on the topic and have found support pretty massive to Stéphane Richard," adds Sébastien Crozier, president of the CFE-CGC Orange. Externally, the impact of the trial on the image of the group is almost zero. The financial analysts have not integrated, and neither are the business partners of the group. Not to mention the competitors who all remained silent - some may have also had to deal with the justice system.

measures have nevertheless been put in place in Orange to face a "hindrance" to the CEO. They are not directly related to the events, but are part of the "good governance" of the group. The operator has three directors: Stéphane Richard, Gervais Pellissier, and Ramon Fernandez, the latter two being designated to ensure continuity in management, in case.