At a meeting held on Friday 30 September chaired by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Bernard Lévy, the EDF Board of Directors voted to co-opt Mrs Michèle Rousseau as director to replace outgoing director Mr Gérard Magnin for his remaining term of office, which is due to expire at the Ordinary General Meeting held to approve the accounts for the year ending 31 December 2018.

In the financial year 2016, therefore, EDF has achieved the legal requirement for women to take up 40% of board seats by 2017.

Michèle Rousseau, 59, is a graduate of the prestigious engineering school, the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, and is an Ingénieur Général des Mines.

Michèle Rousseau started her career in 1983 at the Nord-Pas de Calais DRIRE (Regional Directory for Industry, Research and the Environment) as Head of the Environment Division. She went on to join the Ministry of the Environment where she was responsible for waste, and later the Ministry of Industry where she held the post of Deputy Director of the Nuclear Installation Safety Directorate with responsibility for oversight of EDF's nuclear fleet.

She then moved to the French research and innovation agency, ANVAR, as Deputy Director General where she conducted policies supporting innovative SME projects, and later to the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry as Director with responsibility for energy demand and markets. Here, she was tasked in particular with developing a new legislative and regulatory framework in the wake of the opening up of European electricity gas markets and expanding energy conservation and renewables.

Michèle Rousseau subsequently returned to the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development, where she held the positions of Secretary General and, in 2008, Director, Deputy Commissioner General for Sustainable Development, with particular responsibility for implementing the Grenelle Environment initiative. In 2011, she was appointed Director General of the Seine-Normandie Water Agency before returning in 2016 to the General Council for Environment and Sustainable Development where she heads the Haut-de-France Regional Environmental Authority (MRAe).

A key player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated electricity company, active in all areas of the business: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading, energy services. A global leader in low-carbon energies, the Group has developed a diversified generation mix based on nuclear power, hydropower, new renewable energies and thermal energy. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 37.6 million customers, of which 27.8 million in France. The Group generated consolidated sales of €75 billion in 2015, of which 47.2% outside of France. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.