Alain Prestat has been the CEO of Progress since 2004. He began his career at France Télécom before joining the French Ministry of Industry in 1978, where he worked as head of the commercial and international affairs office of the Raw Materials department. In 1982, he returned to France Télécom, where he took charge of the Data Communications and New Services department. Two years later, in 1984, he moved to Matignon, the French Prime Minister’s residence, where he worked as chargé de mission. He remained in the cabinet as adviser for industrial and technological questions. He then joined the Thomson electronics group as director of planning at Thomson Composants, and became group director, a position that he held until 1988, when he entered the cabinet of Prime Minister Michel Rocard as assistant director. In 1992, he was named President of Thomson Multimedia and occupied the position until 1997, when he founded and chaired Prescott, a firm of consultants specialised in industrial strategy and financial engineering. Alain Prestat is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (1971) and the École nationale supérieure des télécommunications.