Fabrice Fries

Fabrice Fries studied at the École normale supérieure (higher education in humanities), Institut d'études politiques de Paris and École nationale d'administration (class "Denis-Diderot" of 1985). He also holds a masters degree in history from Sorbonne University.[1]

After graduating from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Fabrice Fries joined the French Court of Auditors, as an auditor, before moving to the private office of Jacques Delors, president of the European of Commission.

In 1995, he became the special advisor to the Compagnie Générale des Eaux (now Vivendi) Chairman and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier.

In 1997, he was appointed Head of Strategy & Development of Havas, where he refocused of the group's activities on publishing and press. After Havas' take-over by Vivendi in 1998, it was renamed Vivendi Universial Publishing[2] and Fabrice Fries became its Deputy General Director, in charge of the press and professional information divisions, working with brands such as L'Express, L'Expansion, Courrier international, Dalloz, Masson, Vidal, Le Moniteur, L'Usine nouvelle, L'Etudiant, Exposium, 01 Informatique, le Quotidien du Médecin, as well as several health information brands worldwide.

In 2002, Fabrice Fries was in charge of the sale of those assets by Vivendi to investment funds Cinven, Carlyle and Apax.

In 2004, he joined Atos, an IT services company, as Group Senior Vice-President, in charge of key accounts and market strategy.[3]

In 2006, he was appointed General Secretary and member of the executive committee of Publicis Groupe, the third biggest communications group worldwide.[4] In June 2009, he became head of Publicis Consultants, a Publicis Group agency specialising in corporate and crisis communications.[5] On April 12th 2018, he became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Agence France-Presse (AFP), one of the world's leading press agencies.[6][7]

Fabrice Fries is married to Fabrizia Benini, a senior European civil servant at the European Commission (DG CONNECT) and has two daughters. He is the brother of Charles Fries, a French diplomat, currently French ambassador to Turkey.[8]