Aiman Ezzat
"We are today at a crossroads – organizations need to deliver growth and prosperity in a sustainable and ecologically safe way."
— Aiman Ezzat[1]
Overview
Aiman Ezzat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 22 May 1961 Ismaïlia, Egypt |
| Citizenship | French and Egyptian |
| Education | Master's degree in chemical engineering; MBA |
| Alma mater | CPE Lyon; UCLA Anderson School of Management |
| Occupation(s) | Business executive; Chief executive officer |
| Employer | Capgemini |
| Known for | Leading Capgemini’s global expansion and integration of Altran |
| Title | Chief executive officer of Capgemini |
| Term | 20 May 2020 – present |
| Predecessor | Paul Hermelin |
| Board member of | Board member of Air Liquide; chair of the France–Egypt Business Council (MEDEF International) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur (2021) |
| Website | https://www.capgemini.com/about-us/management-and-governance/board-of-directors/aiman-ezzat/ |
📌 Aiman Ezzat (born 22 May 1961) is a French–Egyptian business executive who has served as chief executive officer of Capgemini since 20 May 2020. A chemical engineer by training with an MBA from UCLA Anderson, he has spent most of his career at Capgemini, where he led the Global Financial Services business unit, served as group chief financial officer and later as chief operating officer before succeeding Paul Hermelin as CEO. Ezzat is widely associated with major turnarounds at Capgemini, the integration of engineering firm Altran and the acceleration of the group’s offshoring and digital capabilities, while promoting a cautious, return-on-investment-driven approach to technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.[3][4][5]
Early life and education
👶 Childhood and studies. Ezzat was born in the Suez Canal city of Ismaïlia, Egypt, the son of an oil-industry engineer, and moved with his family to France at the age of nine. Growing up between Middle Eastern and European cultures, he developed an early facility for adaptation and languages. In France he proved to be a strong student, earning a master’s degree in chemical engineering from CPE Lyon (École supérieure de chimie physique électronique) in 1983 before completing an MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, a dual education that would later underpin his mix of analytical rigour and business pragmatism.[3][4][6]
📚 Intellectual influences and early sponsors. As a young professional, Ezzat immersed himself in strategy literature, later citing C.K. Prahalad’s notion of “strategic intent” and the Blue Ocean Strategy framework developed at INSEAD as formative influences on his client-focused worldview. Rather than having a single mentor, he benefitted from a network of senior sponsors, notably Pierre-Yves Cros, who recruited him into Capgemini’s consulting arm in the 1990s and was impressed by his ability to make complex ideas intelligible “with crystal clarity”. These early readings and relationships shaped a style that combined data-driven analysis with an emphasis on clear, candid communication.[7][5]
Career
Early consulting career and first stint at Capgemini
💼 From engineering to strategy consulting. After completing his MBA in the late 1980s, Ezzat joined IBM’s European operations before moving into management consulting at the Mac Group, a boutique strategy firm founded by Harvard Business School professors. When Mac Group was acquired by Capgemini to form its Gemini Consulting arm, he was drawn into high-level strategy assignments for industrial clients. In one early mission for Jeumont-Schneider, a struggling maker of electric motors for nuclear submarines, he abolished the separate executive dining room and merged all staff into a single cafeteria, forcing managers and workers to sit together and exchange views. The symbolic move helped unlock communication and contributed to the turnaround, illustrating his instinct for breaking organisational silos and “not sugarcoating” difficult decisions.[5][7]
🚀 Dot-com leap and return to Capgemini. By the late 1990s, after almost a decade at Capgemini, Ezzat decided to pursue a more entrepreneurial path. In August 2000 he left the group to join Headstrong, a small Washington, D.C.-based financial-technology consultancy, as managing director for international operations, hoping to ride the wave of a planned initial public offering. Within months, however, the dot-com bubble burst, undermining Headstrong’s ambitions; Ezzat spent four years building the business across Asia and Europe, but later admitted that “the venture never happened” as originally envisaged. Chastened by the experience, he returned to Capgemini in 2004 just as the company was digesting its own post-bubble turbulence and had posted the first annual loss in its history, an episode that reinforced his resilience and comfort in crisis situations.[7][4][5]
Turnarounds and global business leadership
📈 Reviving the US business. Back at Capgemini, Ezzat was appointed deputy director of strategy in 2005 and quickly became central to efforts to fix the group’s underperforming US division. Some senior figures argued that Capgemini should retreat from the American market altogether, but CEO Paul Hermelin instead approved a roughly US$300 million restructuring and investment programme known internally as the “Booster” plan. Ezzat was tasked with leading the project, while a younger colleague, Thierry Delaporte, was sent to New York as finance chief. Within two years, the US operation returned to profitable growth, a turnaround that “propelled” both men into the inner circle around the Paris headquarters and established Ezzat as a go-to problem-solver for the group’s most difficult assignments.[5][6]
🏦 Building the financial services global business unit. In late 2008 Capgemini created a new Global Business Unit dedicated to financial services, effectively giving Ezzat the role of a semi-autonomous CEO focused on banking and insurance clients worldwide. The appointment took effect in January 2009, at the height of the global financial crisis, which he later described wryly as “perfect timing to see the financial market crash”. Under his leadership the unit concentrated on a small number of strategic accounts, emphasised cost discipline and deepened domain expertise, and over time grew into one of Capgemini’s main engines, contributing around a quarter of group revenues.[4][6][5]
Group chief financial officer
📊 Reluctant transition to CFO. In 2012, after proving himself in operational and client-facing roles, Ezzat was unexpectedly asked to become group chief financial officer. Seeing himself as “an operations guy” with only a single MBA course in finance, he initially resisted the move and questioned whether it suited his skills or ambitions. A personal breakfast conversation in Bombay with Hermelin persuaded him that the CFO position was an essential stepping stone “to the highest spheres” of the company. Taking the role just before year-end closing in December 2012, he approached it as a leadership rather than a technical exercise, relying on specialist teams for complex accounting issues while focusing his own efforts on framing choices and guiding decisions.[6][7][5]
🏅 Investor credibility and preparation for succession. As CFO, Ezzat worked to repair Capgemini’s balance sheet, simplify its financial communications and build credibility with investors. His efforts were recognised in 2017 when he was named “Best European CFO” in the Tech/Software category by Institutional Investor magazine. By the time he relinquished the finance brief in 2018, Capgemini’s financial position was significantly stronger, a fact that weighed heavily when the board later evaluated candidates to succeed Hermelin as CEO.[8][4][6]
Deputy CEO and succession process
🤝 Twin deputies at the top. In January 2018 Ezzat was promoted to chief operating officer of Capgemini and named one of two “deputy CEOs” alongside Thierry Delaporte. Rather than immediately designating a sole heir to Hermelin, the board allowed a two-year “horse race” to unfold between the two executives. Observers worried that the arrangement might split the organisation into rival camps, yet Ezzat and Delaporte consciously defied this scenario: they shared a glass-walled office at headquarters, encouraged their teams to intermingle and agreed their positions before taking issues to Hermelin so that he would not have to arbitrate between factions. Colleagues joked that “Aiman barks and Thierry bites”, capturing a partnership in which Ezzat was the more outspoken while Delaporte, quieter, could deliver a sharper sting when necessary.[5][7]
👑 Appointment as CEO and Delaporte’s departure. In May 2020 the board chose Ezzat as Hermelin’s successor, citing his broader multi-disciplinary experience and longer tenure in key group functions. Delaporte later reflected that Ezzat “did a very good job” and that, as the challenger, he would have needed to be far more disruptive to prevail. Leaving on amicable terms, Delaporte went on to become CEO of Wipro, turning the former deputy into a friendly rival in the global IT services market while maintaining personal respect between the two men.[4][5][6]
Chief executive officer of Capgemini
🦠 Taking the helm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ezzat formally assumed the role of CEO on 20 May 2020, “between two lockdowns” during the COVID-19 pandemic, and immediately had to manage a sudden shift to remote work, wavering client demand and severe travel restrictions. One of his first major responsibilities was completing the integration of Altran, a French engineering and R&D services giant that Capgemini had agreed to acquire just before the crisis. Despite logistical challenges, the combination of Altran’s roughly 50,000 engineers with Capgemini’s existing technology services footprint proceeded with limited disruption, positioning the group as a leading player in “digital engineering” at a time when the development of cars, aircraft and other products increasingly demanded the “marriage of engineering and IT”.[4][5][9]
🌍 Globalisation and expansion in India. Long before becoming CEO, Ezzat had championed the internationalisation of Capgemini, particularly its expansion in India, which he considered the “heart” of the group’s delivery model. Over a fifteen-year period he was instrumental in increasing the company’s Indian workforce from a few thousand employees to nearly half of its global headcount, and under his tenure as CEO this trajectory continued, with around 125,000 employees in India by 2021 and plans announced to hire tens of thousands more. He coupled this organic growth with acquisitions, including the agreed purchase of WNS Global Services, a major Indian BPO and analytics firm, for about US$3.6 billion, and smaller cloud and digital specialists such as Cloud4C. In parallel, he deepened strategic partnerships with AWS, Google and Nvidia to keep Capgemini at the forefront of cloud and AI-driven transformation projects.[6][10][11]
📉 Performance, competition and a cautious AI strategy. In the first years of Ezzat’s tenure, Capgemini’s revenues rose from roughly €14 billion in 2019 to around €22 billion in 2022, while operating margins improved from about 11.9% to approximately 13%, and the share price roughly doubled, reflecting both the contribution of the Altran acquisition and strong demand for cloud, AI and engineering services. At the same time, the group broadened its geographic balance, bolstering its presence in North America and Asia while maintaining its European base. By 2023–2024, however, macroeconomic headwinds and more cautious client spending produced flatter growth forecasts, with the company signalling only modest revenue changes in constant currency and facing fierce competition from Indian IT majors such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Ezzat responded by emphasising higher-value consulting and engineering work and by taking a notably measured stance on generative AI: he argued that Capgemini would not “bet blindly” on GenAI, highlighting that some projects—such as a proposed chatbot whose estimated cloud costs reached US$25 million per year—had been stopped because they did not generate a positive return on investment.[5][10][12]
Financial profile and board roles
💶 Compensation and pay structure. As CEO of a global services group with revenues exceeding €20 billion, Ezzat receives a substantial but comparatively moderate remuneration package by international technology-sector standards. In 2022 his total compensation was around €2.53 million, and in 2023 it was approximately €2.42 million, composed of a fixed salary of about €1 million, an annual performance-related bonus and long-term savings and benefit schemes. In 2024 Capgemini’s board proposed a 30% increase in his fixed salary, lifting it from €1.0 million to €1.3 million for his new four-year term, partly to keep pace with benchmarks for comparable European and global tech CEOs; even after the raise, analyses suggested that his overall package remained below the median for leaders of similar-sized companies.[13][14][12]
📊 Shareholding, external mandates and distinctions. In addition to salary and bonuses, Ezzat receives performance-based share awards that vest over time when targets are met, such as a 2023 grant of 19,500 Capgemini shares valued at around €2.4 million at the time of allocation. By 2025 he personally held roughly 0.06% of Capgemini’s share capital, a stake that analysts valued at between €14 million and €20 million depending on market conditions, aligning a significant portion of his wealth with the company’s performance. Beyond Capgemini, he joined the board of Air Liquide in 2021 as an independent non-executive director and, from 2025, served as chair of the France–Egypt Business Council under MEDEF International, a role aimed at strengthening economic ties between his country of birth and his adopted homeland. In recognition of his contributions to French industry, he was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 2021.[13][15][16][4]
Personal life and interests
🏡 Family and summer retreats. Ezzat keeps his private life relatively discreet. He is in his second marriage, to a woman of Serbian origin, and is the father of two young children with his current spouse. Colleagues note that he jealously guards family time and disappears from corporate life each August to spend several weeks at a holiday home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, not far from where his own parents vacationed when he was young. There he enjoys the slower rhythm of seaside life and often takes charge of cooking, saying that “nothing beats a good meal” for bringing together family and friends and providing a bridge between his professional and personal worlds.[5]
🏎️ Motorsport, team games and global travel. Away from work, Ezzat is known as a motorsport enthusiast who inherited a love of racing from his father, whose office in Monaco once overlooked the start line of the Formula One Grand Prix. Today he remains an avid follower of F1 and endurance events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and he also enjoys watching rugby and handball, which he sees as embodying teamwork and physical intensity. A seasoned traveller who has lived and worked in several countries, he has expressed particular affection for Japan and for the wide-open landscapes of Northern California, and he views India—where he has spent extensive periods building Capgemini’s operations—as almost a second home. Friends and colleagues remark on his ability to step off a long-haul flight in Bangalore or San Francisco and immediately dive into meetings, a stamina he half-jokingly attributes to his view that “jetlag is psychological” and best countered by eating promptly on local time.[5][6]
Leadership style
☕ Unassuming manner, sharp edge. In person, Ezzat is often described as confident and direct without ostentation. Visitors to his office recount that he frequently greets them himself and makes their coffee on a small machine in the corner, a gesture that colleagues interpret as a sign of self-sufficiency and lack of pretence. At the same time, his management style is regularly characterised as “blunt” and even “une lame acérée” – a sharp blade – reflecting his preference for concise statements and his ability to “slice through” complex issues quickly. Board members have remarked that he “says things with few words” and projects the authority of someone who can cut to the heart of a problem.[5]
📧 Direct communication and demanding standards. Ezzat is known internally for sending terse, sometimes abruptly worded emails from his phone at all hours, a habit that has occasionally unsettled recipients unaccustomed to his style. Former CEO Paul Hermelin has observed that he “doesn’t put on kid gloves” and may sometimes send messages that are “too fast and too blunt”, yet stresses that his intent is to push for results rather than to intimidate. Ezzat himself acknowledges that his forthright feedback can require an “adaptation period”, but he argues that it is more important to “do effective than to do pretty”. He is reputed to cut off subordinates who arrive unprepared or appear to be protecting turf, while granting considerable autonomy to those who bring solid data and solutions. Colleagues emphasise that he does not hold grudges and that once a decision is taken he moves forward without lingering on blame.[5][7]
Controversies and public positions
🌪️ Navigating crises and downturns. Over more than three decades in technology and consulting, Ezzat has largely avoided personal scandal, but his career has repeatedly intersected with major economic shocks. As head of Capgemini’s financial services unit during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, he steered the business through abrupt project cancellations and client retrenchment by cutting costs and concentrating on a handful of key accounts. A decade later, as CEO during the COVID-19 pandemic, he oversaw a rapid pivot to remote delivery, early investments in collaboration tools and frequent communications with employees and clients, moves that helped Capgemini resume growth by late 2020. These episodes reinforced his reputation as a calm, methodical crisis manager who focuses on operational continuity and client relationships even under severe stress.[6][5][9]
⚖️ Executive pay tensions and employee unrest. The most visible controversy of Ezzat’s tenure has centred on executive compensation and its perceived gap with employee pay. In 2023 Capgemini reported record results, but negotiations over wage increases with French employee representatives proved difficult, with staff citing inflation and strong profits in support of their demands. Tensions escalated in May 2024 when the company’s annual meeting disclosed a 30% rise in Ezzat’s fixed salary—an additional €300,000—as part of his new term, along with increases for other senior executives. For many engineers and consultants who had been offered only modest improvements such as slightly higher meal vouchers, the announcement was seen as “the cherry on the cake” of frustration. On 4 June 2024 employees at Capgemini’s Grenoble site staged a rare strike, the first there since 2006, denouncing what they called “enormous disparity” between top management and the rank and file. The work stoppage was short-lived, but it highlighted the reputational risks around pay in France and prompted management to emphasise profit-sharing mechanisms and variable compensation available to a broader base of staff.[13][17]
🗣️ Views on AI regulation, sustainability and inclusion. While generally maintaining a low political profile, Ezzat has occasionally spoken out on public-policy issues affecting the technology sector. In a 2025 interview with Reuters he argued that the European Union had gone “too far and too fast” with its AI Act, warning that an overly restrictive and fragmented regulatory environment could become “nightmarish” for companies operating globally and urging closer international alignment of rules.[18] At the same time, he has strongly supported climate and sustainability initiatives, committing Capgemini to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and promoting “Green IT” through measures such as reducing travel emissions and helping clients digitise in more energy-efficient ways.[9] As a French leader of Egyptian origin heading a major CAC 40 company, he also symbolises greater diversity at the top of French business and has endorsed industry-wide efforts to improve gender balance and multicultural representation in technology roles.[4][5]
🔮 Outlook and leadership legacy. Looking ahead, Ezzat has framed his mandate as leading Capgemini into an era of “intelligent industry and sustainable growth”, emphasising that the role of CEO is less about personal power than about the ability to “add value” through a clear vision. His strategy combines expansion into high-value consulting, engineering and AI-enabled services with insistence on economic discipline and measurable outcomes for clients. Supporters portray him as one of Europe’s most seasoned tech CEOs—a cosmopolitan strategist and crisis-tested operator whose blend of bluntness and humility has so far delivered strong results—while critics focus primarily on the sharp edges of his communication style and the sensitivities around executive pay. How he balances these forces amid evolving technology, regulation and macroeconomic conditions will shape both his personal legacy and Capgemini’s trajectory in the coming years.[7][6][10]
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References
- ↑ "Conversations for Tomorrow #8: The CEO Corner". Capgemini Research Institute.
- ↑ "Conversations for Tomorrow #10: The CEO Corner". Capgemini Research Institute.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Aiman Ezzat — Wikipédia". Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 "Aiman Ezzat – Capgemini". Capgemini SE. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 "Aiman Ezzat à la tête de Capgemini, un cap garanti". Challenges. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 "How CEO Aiman Ezzat is positioning Capgemini for its next phase of transformative growth". Forbes India. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "Is it Aiman Ezzat? It most certainly is!". Horses for Sources. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Biography: Aiman Ezzat". Capgemini Austria. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Businesses Are Ready to Transition From Commitment to Action at COP27". World Climate Foundation. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Why Capgemini won't bet blindly on GenAI". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Who is Aiman Ezzat?". Favikon. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "We Take A Look At Whether Capgemini SE's (EPA:CAP) CEO May Be Underpaid". Simply Wall St via Webull. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Executive corporate officers compensation for 2022–2023" (PDF). Capgemini SE. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Publication – Compensation of executive director" (PDF). Capgemini SE. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Capgemini SE (CGM) Leadership & Management Team Analysis". Simply Wall St. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Manufacturing Growth Slows, But EMEA IT Services Vendors Find Lifeline in Public Sector Wins". Technology Business Research. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "« C'est la cerise sur le gâteau » : grève historique chez Capgemini après l'augmentation des salaires des dirigeants". France 3 Régions. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Capgemini CEO says EU went 'too far' with AI rules". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.