Paris, September 3, 2015
Canal+ Group: changes in governance
The Canal+ Group Supervisory Board met today, with all its members in attendance: Vincent Bolloré, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Frédéric Crépin, Simon Gillham, Hervé Philippe, Stéphane Roussel and Vincent Vallejo, as well as the representative of the employee shareholders, Eric Bayle.
During the meeting Vincent Bolloré was appointed Chairman of the Canal+ Group Supervisory Board.
The Supervisory Board also decided to strengthen the Canal+ Group Management Board by appointing two additional members: Julien Verley and Jean-Christophe Thiery. The latter will become the Chairman of the Canal+ Group Management Board while Maxime Saada continues as the Chief Executive Officer.
The Supervisory Board wishes to warmly thank Bertrand Meheut for his outstanding work at the helm of Canal+ Group for the last 13 years. He has been responsible for the company’s spectacular recovery and its transformation into the largest French media group, with leading positions in television and film. Bertrand Meheut will remain as special advisor to Vincent Bolloré on the significant transformation that Vivendi wants to achieve with Canal+ Group.
The Canal+ Group Management Board is now made up of Jean-Christophe Thiery, Maxime Saada, Grégoire Castaing and Julien Verley.
Jean-Christophe Thiery, Chairman of Bolloré Média, Chairman of the Canal+ Group Management Board
A graduate from the French ENA school in 1997, Jean-Christophe Thiery joins the Bolloré Group in 2001 to develop a media pool after serving four years in public administration, including the Finance Department. In November 2001, he is appointed Director of Euromedia and the recently privatized SFP. In this capacity, he takes part on behalf of the Bolloré Group in building a European leader in the provision of technical services for the audiovisual and cinema industries.
In 2002, Jean-Christophe Thiery prepares the digital terrestrial television application for Direct 8, and subsequently its launch. As of 2006, he develops together with Yannick Bolloré an audiovisual pool including Direct 8 and later on Direct Star, bought from Lagardère in 2010. In 2007, he prepares the launch of the free newspaper Direct Matin of which he is the Chairman today. Jean-Christophe Thiery is also in charge of the Bolloré Group’s telecoms activities.
Julien Verley, Chief Executive Officer of nc+
Julien Verley started his career in 1990 in the investment company Euris, together with Jean-Charles Naouri. In 1998, he joined Rhône-Pulenc, now Sanofi, where he held several financial and operational positions.
Julien Verley joined Canal+ Group as Chief Financial Officer in 2006 and was appointed in addition Executive Vice President, Strategy, in 2011.
In November 2012, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of nc+, the new company resulting from the merger of Cyfra+, Canal+ Group’s DTH platform in Poland, and the Polish satellite platform “n”. Today, nc+ is the Polish leading premium pay-TV platform. Poland is the second largest market for Canal+ Group after France.
About Vivendi
Vivendi is an integrated media and content group. The company operates businesses throughout the media value chain, from talent discovery to the creation, production and distribution of content. The main subsidiaries of Vivendi comprise Canal+ Group and Universal Music Group. Canal+ is the leading pay-TV operator in France, and also serves markets in Africa, Poland and Vietnam. Canal+ operations include Studiocanal, a leading European player in production, sales and distribution of film and TV series. Universal Music Group is the world leader in recorded music, music publishing and merchandising, with more than 50 labels covering all genres. A separate division, Vivendi Village, brings together Vivendi Ticketing (ticketing in the UK, France and the U.S.), MyBestPro (experts counseling), Watchever (subscription video-on-demand) and the Paris-based concert venue L’Olympia. With over 2.5 billion videos viewed each month, Dailymotion is one of the biggest aggregation and distribution platforms in the world. www.vivendi.com, www.cultureswithvivendi.com, www.themediashaker.com
