Orange Names New Chief Trust Officer for Strategic Focus

Orange has appointed Guillaume Poupard as Group Chief Trust Officer, a newly defined role that underlines the operator’s strategic focus on digital sovereignty trust and security across its global telecommunications footprint. The appointment is effective on 1 February 2026.

The move comes as telecoms operators face growing geopolitical pressure around data protection network resilience and national sovereignty. 

For Orange, the role is designed to ensure trust is embedded across its networks, platforms and services as demand rises from both enterprise and consumer customers for secure connectivity and compliant digital infrastructure.

Reporting directly to Orange Chief Executive Officer Christel Heydemann, Guillaume will be responsible for defining and embodying the group’s sovereignty and trust strategy. 

His remit spans Orange’s core telco activities alongside its expanding portfolio of cybersecurity cloud and artificial intelligence services.

Strengthening trust across telecom networks

As one of Europe’s largest telecoms groups, Orange plays a critical role in national and international digital infrastructure. 

Mobile and fixed networks now underpin essential services from public administration to critical industries making trust and security central to operator strategy.

In this context, Guillaume will work closely with Orange Business and Orange Cyberdefense to accelerate the development of secure solutions across both B2C and B2B markets. 

Included are the cybersecurity services for enterprises and consumers as well as trusted cloud and AI offerings designed to meet strict regulatory and sovereignty requirements.

For enterprise customers, particularly those in regulated sectors such as government finance and energy, the ability to rely on sovereign cloud and secure connectivity is becoming a differentiator among telecoms providers. 

Orange’s investment in this area reflects wider industry shifts as operators seek to move beyond connectivity into higher value digital services.

Supporting Orange Business and Cyberdefense

The announcement follows Orange’s push to strengthen sovereignty under its Lead the Future plan, with a new Defence and Security division within Orange Business.

Bringing together hundreds of specialists, it will support defence and security customers with resilient connectivity, secure data hosting, emergency communications, AI and cybersecurity, leveraging Orange infrastructure and Orange Cyberdefense expertise.

Guillaume’s appointment aims to align with these capabilities under a coherent trust strategy ensuring security and sovereignty are addressed consistently across networks platforms and services. 

By embedding trust at group level Orange aims to accelerate innovation while maintaining control over data infrastructure and security governance.

Nassima Auvray, leader of the new division and Director of Defence & Security says: "I am proud to lead this strategic division, which brings together a multidisciplinary team of several hundred experts committed to designing sovereign, resilient and high-value solutions for our clients and partners in the defence and security sectors.

"By leveraging Orange’s innovation power – from advanced cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to emerging quantum technologies – we are ideally positioned to meet the rapidly evolving needs of this highly specialised sector, which relies on civil solutions and contributes to building tomorrow’s secure digital infrastructure."

Deep cybersecurity and public sector expertise

Guillaume brings significant experience at the intersection of cybersecurity technology and public policy.

He holds a degree in weapons engineering and a PhD in cryptology and is widely recognised as an expert in cybersecurity.

From 2014 to 2022, he served as Director General of the French Cybersecurity Agency ANSSI where he played a central role in shaping France’s national cybersecurity strategy and regulatory framework. His experience is particularly relevant as telecoms operators navigate complex national and European regulations around data protection and digital sovereignty.

He currently serves as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Docaposte, a subsidiary of La Poste Group responsible for digital technologies including cybersecurity artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

With Guillaume’s appointment, Orange is signalling its intent to place trust and sovereignty at the heart of its telco strategy as networks, cloud platforms and digital services continue to converge.