Xavier Huillard: Keeping His Principles

Xavier Huillard was born in June 1954. He came from a family of builders and continued the tradition of previous generations. Xavier went to the top schools in France graduating from the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussée.

He started his career as a civil servant beginning at a local public works and planning department then later transferred to the Ministry for Infrastructure’s international business department.  Xavier eventually joined Sogea in December 1996 as Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of international activities and specific projects. He was appointed Chairman and CEO in 1998.

Xavier then joined VINCI in March 1998 and was Chairman of VINCI Construction from 2000 to 2002. He was promoted Co-Chief Operating Officer of VINCI and Chairman and CEO of VINCI Energies from 2002 to 2004, the Chairman of VINCI Energies from 2004 to 2005.Xavier was promoted to a number of  positions until he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of VINCI in May 2010.

In what you usually don’t hear of in the corporate world Xavier openly criticized his predecessor and then VINCI Chairman Antoine Zacharias for personal luxurious excesses which led to the previous chairman’s resignation. It showed Xavier’s sticking to his principles even though he had worked closely with Zacharias for over a decade.

VINCI, a French company, is a global force in concessions and construction having close to 193,000 employees working in 100 countries.