Christophe Fouquet
| Christophe Fouquet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1973 Orange, Vaucluse, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (master's degree in physics, 1997) |
| Occupation | Engineer, business executive |
| Employer | ASML |
| Title | President and Chief Executive Officer |
| Known for | Leading extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography development before becoming chief executive |
Christophe Fouquet (born 1973) is a French engineer and business executive. He has been president and chief executive officer of the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML since April 2024, having joined the company's executive board in 2018 as head of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology.
Fouquet spent more than two decades in marketing and product management roles at semiconductor equipment suppliers before rising to lead the company that dominates the market for the machines used to manufacture the world's most advanced computer chips.
Early life and education
Fouquet was born in 1973 in Orange, in the Vaucluse department of France. He spent his childhood in the Tarn department and around Lyon, in a family in which engineering and music both played a part. He holds a master's degree in physics, obtained from the Institut polytechnique de Grenoble in 1997.
Career
Applied Materials and KLA-Tencor, 1997 to 2008
Fouquet began his career in 1997 as a global product manager at Applied Materials, a supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, where he stayed until 2001. He subsequently joined KLA-Tencor, another semiconductor equipment specialist, as director of marketing, a post he held until he left the company in 2008.
Rise at ASML, 2008 to 2023
Fouquet joined ASML in 2008 to take charge of marketing management and product management. Over the following years he held several senior positions in product management and technology, including executive vice president of applications, executive vice president of EUV lithography, and chief business officer. In 2018 he was appointed to the board of management as executive vice president responsible for EUV lithography technology. In November 2023 Fouquet was named president and chief executive officer, taking office in April 2024 in succession to Peter Wennink.
Chief executive, from 2024
As chief executive, Fouquet took on leadership of a company that, according to Reuters, faces a significant strategic challenge from geopolitical tensions between the United States and China over export restrictions on chip-making technology.
In October 2024, quarterly results were published prematurely, triggering a sharp fall in the share price and a temporary halt in trading. Responding to the incident, Fouquet stressed the importance of being able to react quickly to setbacks and mistakes within a technologically complex company.
Personal life
Fouquet is married and has six children.
Assessment
Fouquet's appointment followed more than two decades of marketing and product management work at three of the semiconductor industry's leading equipment suppliers, and his path onto the executive board ran specifically through his stewardship of EUV lithography, the technology that has since become central to the company's business. His elevation to chief executive placed him immediately at the centre of a geopolitical dispute over chip export controls between the United States and China, described by Reuters as a major strategic challenge for the business he leads. Within months of taking office, the premature publication of quarterly results and the ensuing share price fall and trading halt tested how Fouquet handled a public setback; he responded by emphasising the ability to react quickly to error rather than assigning blame, though the available record does not describe what operational changes, if any, followed.