Cédric O (born 18 December 1982) is a French politician of

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a ...

(LREM) who served as Secretary of State (junior minister) for the

Digital Economy The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by Internet, World Wide Web, ...

in the governments of successive

Prime Ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is n ...

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 2020 under Presiden ...

and

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who was the country's Prime Minister from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020, when he joined La République En Marche! (LREM). Castex served f ...

from 2019 to 2022.

Early life and education

Cédric O, son of a French mother from

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

and a Korean executive, was born on 18 December 1982. He is the brother of Delphine O, former member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

for Paris's 16th constituency. After graduating from Lycée du Parc, he enrolled at

HEC Paris HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International F ...

and graduated in 2006.

Business career

In 2007, O started working as

communications manager {{Multiple issues, {{more footnotes, date=October 2020{{refimprove, date=October 2020 A communications manager, sometimes called ''public relations manager'' or ''pr manager'', is a person entrusted with the management (planning, implementation an ...

for the Operationelle corporation. Between 2014 and 2017, he was project manager for the

Safran Safran S.A. is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures aircraft engines, rocket engines as well as various aerospace and defense-related equipment or their components. It was formed by a merger between SNECMA an ...

aircraft & rocket engine manufacturing company.

Political career

Along with future

cadres Ismaël Emelien and

Benjamin Griveaux Benjamin-Blaise Griveaux (; born 29 December 1977) is a French politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as Government Spokesman from 2017 to 2019 under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. From 2017 until 2021, he also served as ...

, as well as HEC alumnus Stanislas Guerini, O participated in the campaign team of

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist ...

for the 2006 French Socialist Party presidential primary. After serving as

political adviser Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely tel ...

finance minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

Pierre Moscovici Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to ...

, during the presidency of

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle f ...

, O was appointed treasurer of the

party in

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017 French presidential election, 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, M ...

's 2016–17 presidential campaign. In November 2017, O assumed the duties of political advisor to Macron and prime minister

. Also since November 2017, O has been part of LREM's executive board under the leadership of the party's successive chairmen Christophe Castaner and Stanislas Guerini. On 31 March 2019, O was appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary for the

, serving under the leadership of minister

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician and former diplomat who has served as Minister of the Economy and Finance since 2017 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in 2017 to ...

. In this capacity, he has invited tech CEOs to meet with the French president about the so-called “tech for good" project, as well as

venture capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

s to Paris to promote to them the purported benefits of investing in the French "tech ecosystem." Cédric O convinced

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

to allow French regulators to investigate the company's

moderation Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted. Common uses of moderation include: *Ensuring consistency and accuracy in the marking of stud ...

processes, and also arranged a meeting between Macron and

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of ...

. On 26 July 2020, O was appointed State Secretary of Digital Transition and Electronic Communications. Among his tasks was the installation of the future 5G network in France.

Other activities

European Council on Foreign Relations The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think tank with offices in seven European capitals. Launched in October 2007, it conducts research on European foreign and security policy and provides a meeting space for decis ...

(ECFR), Member

Political positions

Amid efforts to contain the

COVID-19 pandemic in France The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. ...

, O was one of the early supporters of the government's proposal for a state-supported “StopCovid” contact-tracing app project. He later publicly accused

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

of undermining the effort by refusing to help make its iPhones more compatible with the app. In a joint statement in October 2020, O and his Dutch counterpart Mona Keijzer called for a European Union authority to regulate large technology companies and argued that such an authority should be able to prevent digital platforms from blocking access to their services “unless they have an objective justification.”Mathieu Rosemain and Douglas Busvine (15 October 2020)
France, Netherlands call for an EU watchdog to regulate tech giants
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:O, Cedric 1982 births Living people People from L'Arbresle HEC Paris alumni La République En Marche! politicians French politicians of Korean descent Politicians from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 21st-century French politicians