Olivier Andriès

"Hydrogen is an attractive solution that we need to develop further; it will take time to arrive because the technologies must mature, but decarbonization cannot wait, so we must actively pursue other disruptive solutions."

— Olivier Andriès

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Overview

Olivier Andriès
Born	1962 (age 63–64) Dunkerque, France
Citizenship	France
Education	École Polytechnique; École des Mines de Paris
Alma mater	École Polytechnique; École des Mines de Paris
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Safran
Known for	Leadership of Safran and Safran Aircraft Engines
Title	Chief Executive Officer, Safran
Term	2021–present
Predecessor	Philippe Petitcolin
Board member of	Safran; Veolia Environnement; Mines Paris
Children	One daughter

✈️ Olivier Andriès (born April 1962) is a French business executive who has served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the aerospace and defence group Safran since 1 January 2021. A graduate of École Polytechnique and École des Mines de Paris, he previously worked in the French civil service, at the Lagardère group and at Airbus before joining Safran in 2008. Within Safran he held a series of senior roles, including head of the Defence and Security division, chief executive of Turbomeca (now Safran Helicopter Engines) and chief executive of Safran Aircraft Engines, where he oversaw the industrial ramp-up of the LEAP jet engine programme.

📊 Strategic profile. As CEO of Safran, Andriès has been associated with a strategy centred on post-pandemic resilience, industrial discipline and long-term investment in low-carbon aviation technologies. His tenure has coincided with a recovery in Safran’s financial performance and stock market valuation, as well as targeted acquisitions and partnerships intended to strengthen the group’s position in aircraft engines, equipment and defence electronics.

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Early life and education

🎓 Early years. Andriès was born in April 1962 and grew up in the industrial port city of Dunkerque in northern France, an environment he has credited with shaping both his interest in economic history and his attachment to republican, secular values. A strong student, he entered the elite École Polytechnique in 1981 before continuing his engineering education at École des Mines de Paris from 1984, joining the traditional “X-Mines” pathway that channels graduates into senior technical and administrative roles in the French state and major corporations.

🏛️ Civil service. After graduating, Andriès joined the French civil service, initially working at the Ministry of Industry and later at the Treasury, where he specialised in matters relating to the aerospace and defence sectors. This early experience gave him detailed knowledge of the French state’s role as shareholder, regulator and customer in strategic industries, and introduced him to many of the actors who would later feature in his industrial career.

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Career

🧭 Lagardère and strategic apprenticeship. In 1995 Andriès left public service for the private sector, joining the Lagardère conglomerate as deputy director of strategy. Within a few years he became a special adviser to chief executive Jean-Luc Lagardère, effectively apprenticing under one of France’s leading industrialists and combining high-level strategic work with exposure to operational issues in media, defence and aerospace businesses.

✈️ Airbus years. In 2000 Andriès moved to Toulouse to join Airbus as director of product policy, where he was involved in major aircraft programmes and played a role in reshaping the A350 project into the A350 XWB after key airline customers judged the initial design insufficient. During this period he was among several executives caught up in an insider-trading investigation at EADS, Airbus’s parent company, relating to the timing of share sales ahead of programme delays; he was placed under formal investigation in 2008 but ultimately cleared when the French market regulator and courts dropped the case, fully exonerating him by 2015.

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Safran career

🛠️ Joining Safran. Andriès joined Safran in 2008 as executive vice-president for strategy and development at a time when the group was expanding its aerospace and defence activities. He was appointed head of Safran’s Defence and Security division and to the group executive board in 2009, then in 2011 became chief executive of Turbomeca, the helicopter-engine subsidiary later renamed Safran Helicopter Engines, where he gained direct operational responsibility for turbine programmes and international customers.

🚀 Aircraft engines. In 2015 Safran’s board selected Andriès to lead Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly Snecma), the group’s largest division and the source of a substantial share of its revenue and profits. In this role he oversaw the industrial ramp-up of the LEAP engine, developed in partnership with GE for the Airbus A320neo family, the Boeing 737 MAX and China’s COMAC C919. Safran committed to increase output from fewer than 100 engines in 2016 to around 2,000 per year by 2020, a target that required major investments in capacity and supply-chain resilience; despite disruptions such as the 737 MAX grounding, deliveries reached about 1,800 LEAP engines in 2019.

🧩 Group chief executive. In late 2019 Safran’s board unanimously chose Andriès to succeed Philippe Petitcolin as group chief executive officer, favouring internal continuity and his combination of technical and financial experience. After a transition period he took office on 1 January 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis that had severely reduced airline traffic and aircraft production. His early tenure combined cost-cutting measures to adjust to lower volumes with a commitment to maintain research and development spending, especially on technologies aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of aviation, including hybrid-electric propulsion, hydrogen-compatible engines and advanced materials.

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Strategy and performance at Safran

📈 Market performance. Under Andriès, Safran’s financial results recovered strongly from the pandemic trough as air traffic resumed and aftermarket activity for engines and equipment rebounded. Between 2021 and late 2025 the group’s market capitalisation is estimated to have risen from about €46 billion to roughly €120 billion, placing Safran among the most valuable aerospace companies globally and signalling investor confidence in its prospects.

🧪 Technology and acquisitions. In parallel with the recovery, Andriès has emphasised a strategic focus on decarbonisation and advanced technologies, directing a large majority of Safran’s research and development budget towards lower-emission propulsion systems and sustainable aviation fuels. The group has also pursued targeted acquisitions to reinforce its position in defence electronics and flight-control systems, including the purchase of AI-surveillance specialist Preligens and an agreement to acquire the flight-controls business of Collins Aerospace.

🧱 Organisation and governance. Early in his mandate as CEO, Andriès reshaped Safran’s executive committee to reflect his strategic priorities, adjusting roles and responsibilities while retaining continuity in key engineering and programme positions. He has also broadened his external responsibilities, joining the board of directors of Veolia Environnement as an independent director in April 2023 and later becoming chair of the board of Mines Paris, his alma mater.

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Remuneration and wealth

💶 Compensation. As chief executive of a CAC 40 company, Andriès receives a multi-component remuneration package that combines fixed salary, annual variable pay and long-term incentives. For 2023 his total compensation has been reported at around €2.85 million, including a fixed salary of approximately €840,000, an annual bonus close to €1.0 million and long-term incentive shares valued at about €1.0 million, placing him in the lower half of CAC 40 CEOs by pay level. For 2022 his package was of a similar order, with a fixed component of about €800,000 and a bonus slightly above €1.0 million. He was ranked in the lower tier of chief executives of French state-influenced listed companies in 2021, as authorities encouraged moderation in executive pay following the pandemic.

🏦 Shareholding and other interests. As a long-serving executive, Andriès holds a personal stake in Safran’s equity estimated at around 0.0085% of the share capital, corresponding to a portfolio valued in the tens of millions of euros at recent market prices, in addition to his annual remuneration. He also receives fees for his role as an independent director of Veolia Environnement and for his governance responsibilities at Mines Paris, although there are no widely published estimates of his overall net worth, and he is generally described as maintaining a low public profile with limited overt displays of wealth.

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Personal life and leadership style

👨‍👩‍👧 Family and privacy. Accounts in the business press describe Andriès as a discreet and soft-spoken executive who rarely discusses his private life. He is married and has one daughter, but seldom mentions his family in interviews, preferring to focus public communications on Safran’s operations and strategy. Raised in Dunkerque rather than in the Parisian business milieu, he is often portrayed as unpretentious and hard-working, qualities seen as consistent with his engineering and civil-service background.

📚 Historical interests and mentoring. Andriès is known as an avid reader of history and biographies and has cited Winston Churchill’s aphorism that “the farther back you look, the farther forward you are likely to see” as an influence on his approach to long-term planning. Colleagues describe a management style that combines meticulous preparation with a calm demeanour: in internal meetings he is reported to ask detailed questions and to insist firmly on objectives without raising his voice. Outside Safran he has expressed support for education and meritocracy, serving as chair of Mines Paris and engaging in outreach to young people; after his election as president of GIFAS, the French aerospace industries association, in 2023 he highlighted the need to attract both girls and boys into aerospace careers and to present the sector as meaningful and innovative.

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Controversies and criticism

⚖️ Airbus insider-trading case. The principal controversy in Andriès’s early career arose from an insider-trading investigation linked to Airbus parent company EADS in the mid-2000s. As delays affected major aircraft programmes, a group of senior executives, including Andriès, sold shares, prompting allegations that they had acted on non-public information. He was placed under formal judicial investigation in 2008, a development that stalled his career progression for several years, but France’s financial regulator later cleared him of wrongdoing and the criminal case was eventually dropped in 2015, fully exonerating him.

🌱 Rennes factory dispute. In 2025 Andriès drew criticism in France after a political dispute over a proposed Safran foundry in the city of Rennes. Frustrated by opposition from local officials belonging to Green party lists, he told a parliamentary commission that he had been “welcomed with tomatoes” and declared that Safran would no longer invest in municipalities governed by Green majorities, remarks that were widely reported as a boycott threat against environmentally minded cities. Environmental groups and some political figures accused him of overreacting and jeopardising the company’s image, and subsequent reports noted that he sought to soften the tone of his comments, stressing the importance of constructive dialogue with local authorities.

📰 Public image. Early in his succession process at Safran, some commentators questioned whether Andriès’s reserved style would be sufficiently visible for the top job, with one specialist newsletter describing him in 2020 as “peu visible” (“hardly seen”) in comparison with more outspoken contemporaries. Since becoming CEO he has generally been perceived as a steady, low-profile leader who supports initiatives on diversity and environmental responsibility but rarely takes prominent public positions on politically sensitive social issues, leaving most messaging to the company’s institutional channels.

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