Anne-Marie Idrac

Anne-Marie Idrac (born 27 July 1951 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor) is a French politician of the Nouveau Centre political party who served as Minister of State for Foreign Trade in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 2008 to 2010.

Idrac is an alumna of the Institute of political studies of Paris (Sciences Po), and of the École Nationale d'Administration.

From 1974 to 1995, Idrac worked as civil administrator in various posts in the Minister of Public Works (France), of housing, of the environment, of urbanism and of transports.

She was also general director of the public establishment of rural development of Cergy-Pontoise from 1990 to 1993.

In 1995, still director of land transports, Idrac was called to the government as woman issued from the civil society, to the post of Transportation State Secretary, which she occupied in the two governments of Prime Minister Alain Juppé.

She conducted the legislative reform of 1996 which led to the debt-clearing of the SNCF by the creation of the RFF, and to the experimentation in 5 regions of de-centralisation of regional trains (TER), extended in 2001 by Jean-Claude Gayssot.

Daughter of André Colin, the head of MRP and of political parties which succeeded it at the centre, she chose to join François Bayrou's Democratic Force and the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

She was elected UDF deputy of the third circonscription of the Yvelines in 1997 and re-elected in 2002, losing to Hervé Morin to the presidency of the group UDF at the National Assembly.

She was chairman of the regional council of the Île-de-France (1998–2002) and was general secretary to the 'Nouvelle Union' for the French Democracy (UDF).

In September 2002, Idrac left her mandate and political functions to take on the presidency of the RATP, on the suggestion of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Christian Blanc, ally to the UDF, who had been one of her predecessors at the RATP, and with whom she has led the fusion of Air-France/Air-Inter to completion, became her successor at the National Assembly.

During her time at RATP she managed significant reform while minimising confrontations with unions representing the group's 45,000 employees.

Her tenure was marked most notably by the reform of retirement financing, the launching of automation of Parisian metro's line 1, the installation of a guaranteed contractual service in case of strikes, as well as contracts in foreign countries.

Brought back to the post for a mandate of 5 years in July 2004, Idrac resigned on 12 July 2006 to succeed Louis Gallois as head of the SNCF, the latter being called to EADS.

At the time, she was one of just two women to run leading French companies.

In 2007, Idrac was named one of Europe's 25 top businesswomen in the Financial Times annual ranking.

In 2008, however, she was replaced with Guillaume Pepy.

During her brief time in office, she was involved in the development of TGV lines at a European dimension, to the relaunch of regional transportation, and to the regeneration of the network for RFF, and to the rectification of the fret situation.

She oversaw the creation of an autonomous fund for retired railwaymen, rendered necessary by the application to enterprise of IFRS accounting norms.

Ahead of the 2012 presidential election, Idrac endorsed François Bayrou's candidacy as President of France.

In 2018, news reported that Idrac was among the contenders in the frame for the interim CEO role at Air France-KLM after the departure of Jean-Marc Janaillac; instead, the position went to Anne-Marie Couderc.