De Guillebon, who had led the Orange International Carriers operations since March 2016, confirmed his move with Capacity, stating: “I moved away from my International Carriers role on 1 January 2019 and have accepted an offer from the Orange Executive Committee to lead a new Orange Business Unit.” A spokesperson for Orange told Capacity that a CEO successor has been appointed and will be joining the Orange International Carriers team in March.
De Guillebon’s new business unit is dedicated to managing major sporting events and will notably be responsible for leading the 2024 Olympic Games in France. It’s a return to sports for the man who, prior to his International Carriers role, was project director for Orange’s technical partnership with UEFA for the Euro 2016 football tournament, which was hosted in France. He held that position from January 2012 to July 2016.
“It is with enthusiasm that I have accepted this new and exhilarating challenge. Indeed, sports events are the showcase of our offers and of our technological know-how and they also represent a great human adventure,” said de Guillebon. “I’d like to thank everyone at Orange International Carriers for the dedication and enthusiasm they have shown for our business, which has really been the solid foundation for our success.”
De Guillebon has managed international connectivity and transmission services for wholesale voice, mobile, internet and security services within the Orange Wholesale & International Networks division, which launched on 2 May 2018 and saw all wholesale activities, both in France and internationally, as well as networks and infrastructure, and roaming activity, merge under one roof. This experience and his passion for 5G and IoT, voice and innovation, security, bandwidth, IP connectivity, CDN, cloud, subsea, and RoI, puts him in good stead to drive the new Orange sporting business unit. Peers in the industry have praised the positive contributions that Pierre-Louis brought to the wholesale business during his tenure at the helm of Orange International Carriers.
In a tribute message to members of the Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), of which Orange International Carriers has been a leading member, de Guillebon said: “I want to thank you ALL for the great times we had together. With a special word to Marc [Halbfinger] who has led our group to successful initiatives and amazing results, and Jussi [Makela], who helped us a lot to make all this happen.” Some of the initiatives have included getting more and more carriers to sign up to a code of conduct to combat fraud, which a GLF report from October said costs the telecoms sector $17 billion in revenue a year.
Commenting on the news, Jussi Makela, director of the Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), said: “Pierre-Louis has made a significant contribution to the development of the GLF by chairing the Governance Committee and leading the formation of our Constitution. Orange, under the leadership of Pierre-Louis, has been an active participant across a number of GLF working groups that have started to make a real and positive impact for the industry.
“We will miss his contribution and leadership in the GLF, and wish him all the success in his new, exciting role.”
