Guillaume Pepy: SNCF Chairman

Guilluame Pepy was born on May 26, 1958 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He attended the Ecole alsacienne high school in Paris. Pepy is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Science Po) and a former alumnus of ENA.

SNCF stands for Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francias, the state-owned rail service of France.  He first joined SNCF in 1988 as Chief of Staff to then Chairman, Jacques Fournier. Pepy then had stints in different ministerial private offices from 1990 to 1993. He came back as Head of Investment, Economy and Strategy.

Pepy was put in charge in 1997 of Mainline Services. He became Deputy Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for all passenger activities (TER regional, Transilien Greater Paris suburban services, mainline services, rolling stock and operations) in 1998. Pepy introduced an innovative low fares policy designed to boost train occupancy utilizing “yield management” flexible pricing techniques. He was also the moving force behind the establishment of Voyage-sncf.com, of which he was Chairman from 1998 to 2006, and of iDTGV.

The President of France appointed him to run the state-owned business on February 27, 2008. As such Pepy is actually a high-ranking civil servant. He has a very challenging job. The challenges include deregulation, a “green” policy, and militant rail unions. The French President Sarkozy also instructed him to greatly increase capital expenditure while revenues were collapsing.  It’s reported in the 72 year of the existence of SNCF, Pepy has the most difficult job of any of its chief executives.

It not an easy task to take on a job when the flagship service of SNCF, TGV had slumping revenue aside from the lower revenues in freight. It obviously involves cutting cost while at the same time having the President of France telling you to increase spending.

Pepy immediately began to work launching the restructuring of SNCF Group in 2008 with three aims: position SNCF to outperform rivals; be an industrial champion, proud of the group’s success and know-how; be the leading public service company in everyday life in France, with plans for a European presence.

Having clear goals to work on despite the difficulties is a characteristic of a capable leader.