CHRISTOPHE SALOMON

About CHRISTOPHE SALOMON

Christophe Salomon is currently Executive Vice-President at Thales, responsible for the global Secure Communications & Information Systems business, after joining Thales’s Executive Committee in 2020 to lead Land and Air Systems. He is an armaments engineer, graduating from France’s École Polytechnique in 1994 and Sup’Aéro in 1999. His career combines defense procurement, public-sector strategy, industrial policy and large-scale digital transformation. He began his career at the French Ministry of Armed Forces within the Defence Procurement Agency (DGA), where he spent 13 years holding various positions and leading major programmes, mainly in the ministry’s information systems domain. That early experience gave him deep exposure to secure systems engineering, critical infrastructure, programme governance and the operational requirements of sovereign defence capabilities. In 2012, Salomon moved to the office of Jean-Yves Le Drian, then French Minister of Defence, first as Technical Advisor and later as Industrial Affairs Advisor, a role he held until 2017. This period strengthened his understanding of defence policy, industrial ecosystems and the interface between the state and strategic suppliers. In 2017, he joined EDF as Chief Information Officer, where he was also in charge of group-wide digital transformation and cybersecurity, leading a team of around 6,000 people. At Thales, he has overseen major activities spanning military radios, critical network infrastructure, protection systems, sovereign cyber technologies and digital services across more than 20 countries. Salomon’s profile is especially relevant in businesses where technological sovereignty, resilience and secure communications are central to competitive advantage. His background positions him as a senior executive with strong credibility in defence, cybersecurity and the governance of complex industrial platforms.