Xavier Huillard

Xavier Huillard
Born	1954-06-27June 27, 1954 (age 72)
Nationality	French
Education	École Polytechnique; École nationale des ponts et chaussées
Occupation	Business executive, civil engineer
Company	Vinci
Title	Chairman of the Board of Directors, Vinci
Spouse	Béatrice
Children	Five

Xavier Huillard (born June 27, 1954) is a French civil engineer and business executive who led the construction and concessions group Vinci for almost two decades. He was director and chief executive officer of the group from 2006, chairman and chief executive officer from May 6, 2010 to April 30, 2025, and has been non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors since May 1, 2025. Shareholders renewed his term as chairman for a further four years on April 14, 2026.

A graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Huillard began his career as a civil servant in Normandy before spending some 15 years with companies of the future Eiffage group, where he was regarded as the likely successor of its chairman, Jean-François Roverato. He moved to Sogea, a subsidiary of the Société Générale d'Entreprises (SGE), in December 1996, and rose through the group that became Vinci, heading Vinci Construction and then Vinci Energies.

Huillard came to public attention in June 2006, when, as Vinci's chief executive, he sent the board an eight-page letter attacking the pay and governance of the group's founder-chairman, Antoine Zacharias. Zacharias left the company within days. Over the following years Huillard pushed the group further into concessions and energy. Airport concessions, motorways and the 2021 purchase of the energy business of the Spanish group ACS, known as Cobra IS, took a growing share of the business. By 2025 the group operated 72 airports in 14 countries and had revenue of EUR 74.6 billion.

Because the company's articles of association set an age limit of 70 for executive office, the board separated the roles of chairman and chief executive at the 2025 annual general meeting. Pierre Anjolras, whom Huillard had named chief operating officer in May 2024, took over as chief executive. Outside the group, Huillard is the lead independent director of Air Liquide, and he chaired the business think tank Institut de l'entreprise from 2011 to 2017.

Early life and education

Huillard was born on June 27, 1954. He comes from a family of builders. His great-grandfather Michel, his grandfather Émile and his father Jean-Pierre were all graduates of the École centrale who worked in construction. His great-great-grandfather Charles was an architect for the city of Paris and won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1854. His two elder brothers, Jacques and Jean-Marc, also worked in the industry. In 2010 Capital reported that Jacques was head of Eiffel, the steel-structures specialist within the Eiffage group, and that Jean-Marc ran a subsidiary. Both had previously worked for the group Huillard would later lead.

Huillard spent his first 15 years in Abidjan, where his father worked for the contractor Dumez. His father later directed the construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire, which was modelled on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

He entered the École Polytechnique in 1973 and graduated in 1977. He then trained at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées (now École des Ponts ParisTech) and qualified as an engineer of the state Corps des ponts et chaussées. Fellow students at Polytechnique recalled that he woke his classmates by singing opera arias in his room. The agronomist Marion Guillou, a fellow polytechnicien, was working in the same region during his first posting.

Career

Civil service, 1979 to 1982

In 1979 Huillard took charge of the Saint-Lô district of the Direction départementale de l'Équipement of the Manche department, the state's public-works administration there. In that post he launched the project to clear the sand that had built up around Mont-Saint-Michel. According to Guillou, "he was bored stiff" in the job. In a 2015 interview with the magazine Acteurs publics, quoted by Batiactu, Huillard linked his early public service to the way he later described Vinci: "At Vinci, we define ourselves as a private company in the public interest. Because the administration does not have a monopoly on the public interest!"

Fougerolle, SAE and the Eiffage group, 1982 to 1996

In 1982 Huillard joined the contractor Fougerolle, which later became part of Eiffage. He had been spotted through the alumni network of the Ponts et Chaussées engineers. His first task was to turn around Bornhauser Molinari, a small electrical-installation firm based in Auxerre in Burgundy. Capital reported that he cut about a quarter of its workforce, and a former executive recalled that he acted "with composure" and "without qualms". He then took on a series of assignments for the group. One was a two-year posting to Washington, D.C. to close an American subsidiary, during which he lived alone in a studio flat. He returned fluent in English and with a detailed knowledge of the North American market.

In 1993 Huillard became chairman and chief executive of the Société auxiliaire d'entreprises (SAE), which had absorbed Eiffel Construction in 1990. That year SAE merged with Fougerolle to form Eiffage. Batiactu described him in this period as a specialist in "the construction of groups". Eiffage's chairman, Jean-François Roverato, had trained Huillard as his successor and was widely seen as grooming him to run the group. According to Capital, Roverato would not let his protégé step out of his shadow. Huillard resigned twice and returned months later each time, before leaving for good for the rival group. "He couldn't stand me any more, he needed oxygen," Roverato told Capital in 2010. The two men remained close; they had long been neighbours in Versailles and lunched together once a month.

Sogea and the formation of Vinci, 1996 to 2005

Huillard joined Sogea, the building and civil-engineering subsidiary of the Société Générale d'Entreprises (SGE), in December 1996 as deputy chief executive in charge of international activities and special projects. He became Sogea's chairman and chief executive in 1998. In March 1998 he was also appointed deputy general manager of the parent group, which took the name Vinci.

In 2000 Antoine Zacharias combined SGE with Groupe GTM, the former Grands Travaux de Marseille, and made the enlarged group the largest construction company in the world. Huillard was chairman of Vinci Construction from 2000 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004 he was co-chief operating officer of Vinci and chairman and chief executive of Vinci Energies, the group's electrical and technical-services business. He was then chairman of Vinci Energies from 2004 to 2005. Paris Match described Huillard in this period as the "dauphin" Zacharias had chosen for himself.

Chief executive and the departure of Zacharias, 2006

Huillard became a director and chief executive officer of the group in 2006, with Zacharias remaining chairman. Within months the two men had fallen out. Paris Match wrote that Zacharias no longer trusted his chief executive, and that the board had been called to replace him. In response Huillard sent the directors an eight-page letter. In it he wrote: "I now realise that I have been the honest screen for a man who has progressively set out to enrich himself beyond all reason at Vinci's expense."

Le Parisien published extracts of the letter on June 1, 2006. Under the heading "Mr Zacharias is abusing the group", Huillard detailed the chairman's earnings over six years. He wrote that Zacharias held stock options worth about EUR 250 million, on top of an annual salary of EUR 4.3 million, one of the highest in the CAC 40, and a generous pension. Huillard said he had fallen from favour because he opposed a further EUR 8 million bonus for Zacharias after the group's takeover of the motorway operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF). The board denied in a statement that any such bonus had been agreed.

The letter also attacked Alain Dinin, the chairman of the property developer Nexity and a Vinci director, whom Zacharias wanted as his successor. Huillard wrote that Dinin "does not have the skills and is breaking into Vinci", noting his lack of international experience in a group then doing 40 percent of its business abroad. He also alleged conflicts of interest on the board's remuneration committee, set up in early 2000, whose members included Serge Michel and the adviser Alain Minc. Huillard said both had contracts with the group through their firms, Soficot and AM Conseil, and had shared a one percent fee on the GTM deal of more than EUR 10 million. Minc declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of board deliberations. Dinin withdrew his candidacy, and that evening nine directors sided with Huillard. His lawyer, Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, had been preparing a series of legal complaints, which were dropped. Zacharias left the group in June 2006.

Later accounts qualified Huillard's role. Capital reported in 2010 that the fall of Zacharias had been organised behind the scenes by two directors, Dominique Ferrero and Dominique Bazy, who persuaded half the board to vote against the chairman. Bazy told the magazine: "Xavier thought he would be fired and the letter in which he denounced Antoine's excessive pay was his testament. It hindered us more than it helped." The same article credited Huillard with calming a company split between supporters and opponents of Zacharias. The construction executive Serge Michel told Capital: "I underestimated him and I told him so." Batiactu similarly wrote that Huillard managed to reconcile the two camps on the board.

Chief executive under Yves-Thibault de Silguy, 2006 to 2010

After Zacharias left, the former European commissioner Yves-Thibault de Silguy became chairman, with Huillard continuing as chief executive. In this period Huillard came to know the airport concession business. Huillard later told Paris Match that the group's interest in airports began with two Cambodian airports that GTM had operated since the 1990s. "When I discovered they existed in 2006, I told myself it was far away and complicated and that I would sell them at the first opportunity," he said. He credited Nicolas Notebaert, later head of Vinci Concessions, with persuading him of the business's potential. The group went on to win the management of the airports of Chambéry, Grenoble and Nantes.

By the time Huillard was due to take the chairmanship in 2010, Capital reported that he oversaw 450,000 parking spaces and 4,380 kilometres of motorway. It noted that the group had come through the financial crisis relatively well thanks to its motorway and car-park revenues, but needed to find new growth. A former executive of the group told the magazine that Huillard would "have to prove he is not just a good manager but also a strategist".

Chairman and chief executive, 2010 to 2025

Huillard was appointed chairman of the board and chief executive officer on May 6, 2010. He was also appointed chairman of Vinci Concessions on June 20, 2016, and held that post until 2024. On November 7, 2024, Nicolas Notebaert was named chief executive of concessions and took over the chairmanship of the group's concession companies.

His term as director was renewed in 2018. In November 2018, at the age of 64 and starting his third term, he told Paris Match that it would be his last. On succession he said: "In our original management system, a newcomer could make many misreadings. Vinci is a real 'factory of bosses', all autonomous, responsible, and who know the group's culture intimately; finding a successor internally should not be a problem. But I won't name names, that would amount to eliminating them from the list."

At the general meeting of April 12, 2022, shareholders renewed his term as director for four years, and the board reappointed him chairman and chief executive. The board said it did not intend to change the age limits in the articles of association, so Huillard's roles would be separated before his new term ended.

On May 3, 2024, the board unanimously approved Huillard's appointment of Pierre Anjolras as chief operating officer, reporting to him. The company described the move as the first step in Huillard's succession plan. Anjolras had joined the group in 1999 and run the motorway companies Cofiroute and ASF and the road builder Eurovia. At the start of 2021 Huillard had made him chairman of Vinci Construction, with the task of merging Eurovia into it. Batiweb reported that Huillard had to give up executive office after reaching the statutory age limit of 70 in June 2024.

Non-executive chairman, 2025 to present

On April 17, 2025, a few weeks before his 71st birthday, Huillard chaired his last general meeting as chief executive. Shareholders elected Anjolras to the board, and the board then decided to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive with effect from May 1, 2025. It appointed Huillard chairman and Anjolras chief executive officer from that date, and paid tribute to Huillard "for his contributions to the VINCI Group as Chief Executive Officer since 2006". Agence France-Presse noted that he was only the second head of the company since its creation in 2000, after Zacharias.

At the annual general meeting held at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on April 14, 2026, 91.91 percent of votes cast approved the renewal of his term as director. The board then reappointed him chairman for four years. As of October 2026 Huillard remains chairman of the board, with Anjolras as chief executive.

Leadership and management style

Huillard has described the group's management model as decentralised. He called the group "a real 'factory of bosses', all autonomous, responsible", and said a manager brought in from outside "could make many misreadings". He also argued against relying heavily on subcontractors. In 2018 he told Paris Match: "We are taking back activities that we had sometimes outsourced, such as pouring floor slabs. It is only by working with tradesmen over the long term that we can develop quality and safety. Thinking that it costs less is short-sighted. The bankruptcy of the British Carillion proves it."

He has presented the concession model as a public-service activity under state regulation. He told Acteurs publics in 2015 that the administration "must be capable of drawing up regulatory frameworks" to ensure that a private partner carries out its mission in the collective interest, citing motorways as "the typical case".

Profiles have emphasised his informal manner. Capital reported in 2010 that colleagues often heard him singing in the corridors, that he used the familiar "tu" easily, and that he was always available for a meeting. It said his popularity with staff helped explain why they backed him in the conflict with Zacharias. Denis Vernoux, an employee representative on the board, told the magazine: "I try to keep my distance, but it's not always easy." The same profile reported that he had the showy decoration in his predecessor's office removed, ate in the staff canteen once a week, and often drove his own Citroën C6 rather than use his chauffeur. Colleagues joked that he had "sea urchins in his pockets", a French expression for a tight-fisted person. An observer quoted by AFP in 2025 described him as an "old sea dog" who did not show off. AFP also reported that Huillard identified so closely with the group that he refused interviews that were not about the group.

Major deals and strategic decisions

Concessions and airports

AFP summarised Huillard's tenure as focused on diversifying and internationalising the construction group along two strategic lines: motorway and airport concessions, and energy. After the regional French airports, the group took over the management of 10 airports in Portugal and then two airports in Osaka. Under Huillard the group came to operate the three Japanese airports of Kansai, Osaka and Kobe (Kansai International Airport, Osaka International Airport and Kobe Airport). In 2018 Huillard told Paris Match that being in airports meant "we now have access to all the world's airlines, that is the key in our business". He argued that commercial drive was what distinguished private management from public management. At the end of 2018 it was the third-largest airport operator in the world, with 44 airports in 11 countries.

The group held an eight percent stake in Aéroports de Paris, and Huillard sat on ADP's board. In January 2018 Huillard confirmed that the group might raise its stake if the French state privatised the operator. Later that year Huillard told Paris Match that the group would not be interested if the capital were "cut into small pieces", as the group aimed to control assets or at least have the prospect of control. "In 50 years, we will still be here, whereas infrastructure funds rarely stay beyond 15 years," he said.

Notre-Dame-des-Landes

The group held a 55-year concession to build and operate a planned EUR 580 million airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, near Nantes. The project had faced decades of opposition, and an expert report to the government in late 2017 put the possible compensation due to the concessionaire at up to EUR 350 million. In January 2018, before the government's decision, Huillard said the company was confident it would be compensated if the project were dropped. He said that "the state felt the need through a few phone calls to tell us" that reports suggesting otherwise were "completely false". The state abandoned the project that month and chose to terminate the contract on public-interest grounds. Huillard told Paris Match later that year that "the state decided unilaterally not to carry out Notre-Dame-des-Landes" and "will have to draw all the consequences of the decisions taken with respect to the contract that binds us".

London Gatwick, 2018 to 2019

On December 27, 2018, Vinci Airports agreed to buy a 50.01 percent stake in Gatwick Airport, the second-largest airport in the United Kingdom, for GBP 2.9 billion. Global Infrastructure Partners kept the remaining 49.99 percent. Gatwick had handled 45.7 million passengers in 2018. The deal closed on May 14, 2019. The company said the acquisition made Vinci Airports the second-largest airport operator in the world, with more than 240 million passengers a year across 46 airports in 12 countries. It was financed with borrowing, including a sterling bond issue. Batiweb later reported that the group had added Edinburgh Airport to its British holdings, and by 2026 described the group as the world's largest private airport operator, with 72 airports in 14 countries.

Cobra IS and energy, 2021

On April 1, 2021, Huillard's group announced an agreement to acquire the energy business of the Spanish group ACS, Cobra IS. The deal was completed on December 31, 2021, for EUR 4.9 billion. That price comprised an enterprise value of EUR 4.2 billion plus EUR 700 million for the cash of the new entity and other adjustments, and the group paid it entirely from available cash. The perimeter included almost all of the contracting business of ACS Industrial Services and nine greenfield concession projects, mostly electricity transmission lines in Latin America. It also included a renewable-energy project development platform. The company said it had identified opportunities representing about 15 gigawatts of capacity, mainly solar and onshore wind. Huillard said the transaction aimed "not only to build a world leader in energy-related engineering, works and services", where the group was already active, but also to speed up the group's development in renewable energy using Cobra IS's long experience. In the communications consultant Vincent de la Vaissière's view, quoted by AFP, Huillard's group was a "precursor" in this field: through Cobra IS it built solar farms and high-voltage lines around the world before its French rivals Bouygues and Eiffage.

Construction reorganisation

At the beginning of 2021 Huillard appointed Pierre Anjolras chairman of Vinci Construction and gave him the task of bringing Eurovia and Vinci Construction together. The company later said that the continued improvement in Vinci Construction's performance within its new scope showed the reorganisation had succeeded.

Heritage projects

Under Huillard, the group acted as main patron for the reconstruction of the spire of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, which had been dismantled in 1845 after storm damage. Huillard laid the first stone of the works on March 25, 2025. The group had also restored the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles and the trenches of the museum of the Great War at Meaux.

Financial and market performance

In 2016 Vinci reported revenue of EUR 38 billion and net income of EUR 2.5 billion, with more than 183,000 employees in about 100 countries. Revenue was EUR 48.05 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic cut it to EUR 43.23 billion in 2020. Net income attributable to the group fell from EUR 3.26 billion to EUR 1.24 billion over the same period. In 2021 revenue recovered to EUR 49.40 billion and net income to EUR 2.60 billion, with record free cash flow of EUR 5.28 billion and net financial debt of EUR 19.3 billion at year end. Huillard described 2021 as "a strong rebound, all the more remarkable as the health situation has not yet stabilised".

In 2024, Huillard's last full year as chief executive, revenue rose 4.0 percent to EUR 71.62 billion and net income attributable to the group rose 3.4 percent to EUR 4.86 billion, despite a new French tax on long-distance transport infrastructure operators. Free cash flow reached a record EUR 6.81 billion, and net financial debt stood at EUR 20.4 billion at year end. International business generated 58 percent of revenue and 53 percent of net income. Huillard said the energy business, made up of Vinci Energies and Cobra IS, accounted for "almost 40% of the Group's total business activity", and that the group had begun 2025 "in a quietly confident mood". The group employed 280,000 people in more than 120 countries in May 2024, and 285,000 by April 2025. In 2025, the year Huillard handed over the chief executive role, revenue rose four percent to EUR 74.6 billion and net income was stable at EUR 4.9 billion. According to a French Senate report on motorway profitability published in October 2024 and quoted by AFP, the group's motorway concessions accounted for 43 percent of its net income while representing nine percent of its revenue.

Board memberships and outside roles

Huillard has been a director of the industrial gases group Air Liquide since 2017. His current term runs from 2025 to 2029. He is the board's lead independent director and chairs its nominations and governance committee. As of October 2026 Air Liquide also lists him as:

• director and honorary chairman of Vinci Energies;
• director of La Fabrique de la Cité, an endowment fund;
• permanent representative of Snel on the board of ASF, and of Vinci Autoroutes on the board of Cofiroute;
• director of the Fondation d'entreprise Vinci pour la Cité, which supports social and professional integration;
• director of Association Aurore, a recognised public-interest association working against poverty and exclusion;
• director and chairman of the Institut Pierre Lamoure.

He chaired the Institut de l'entreprise, a think tank funded by large French companies, from January 2011 to January 2017, and is its honorary chairman. In 2018 he sat on the board of Aéroports de Paris.

Controversies

Executive pay

Huillard's own pay drew scrutiny after the Zacharias affair. Capital reported in 2010 that he managed his stock options profitably, realising capital gains of EUR 1 million in 2008 and twice that in 2009, years when the group's results were weak. In 2014 his total remuneration, including fixed and variable pay and the value of long-term incentive shares, was EUR 3.27 million. At the April 2015 general meeting only 63 percent of shareholders approved it in the advisory vote. Loïc Dessaint of the proxy adviser Proxinvest told Capital that while "the total amount is acceptable", the performance criteria for his variable pay were vague and those for free shares were so undemanding that they were almost impossible to miss. The magazine also reported that he received EUR 3.6 million in supplementary remuneration between 2010 and 2014.

Qatar labour allegations

In March 2015 the French non-governmental organisation Sherpa filed a complaint against Vinci Construction Grands Projets (VCGP) and French executives of its Qatari subsidiary QDVC. The complaint alleged forced labour, servitude and concealment on construction sites in Qatar. The company denied the allegations and filed a defamation claim against Sherpa, and prosecutors in Nanterre opened a preliminary inquiry in April 2015. The prosecutor closed the case without action in 2018. Sherpa, joined by former workers, then filed a new complaint, which led to a judicial investigation. In November 2022, shortly before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, an investigating judge summoned VCGP. The group denied any wrongdoing and said that none of QDVC's projects were connected to the World Cup and that it had built no stadium or hotel for the tournament. It also objected to the timing of the hearing. In a 2017 profile, Batiactu noted that Huillard had at times been obliged "to defend the honour of Vinci" against these accusations.

VCGP was placed under formal investigation for subjecting workers to working or living conditions incompatible with human dignity, obtaining services from vulnerable people for disproportionate pay, and reducing people to servitude. In May 2025 France's Court of Cassation confirmed the indictment. In October 2025 the Nanterre prosecutor announced that a former executive of a Vinci subsidiary had also been placed under formal investigation and barred from travelling to Qatar.

Criticism of the concession model

The model Huillard expanded, combining construction with long-term concessions, has drawn criticism. In 2016 Le Monde diplomatique called the group an "archetype of the predator of public contracts" that "plays on two fronts to rake in profits". Senator Hervé Maurey's October 2024 report on motorway company profits called the motorway concessions the group's "cash cows". AFP noted in 2025 that the renewal of the group's French motorway concessions, whose contracts with the state expire from 2031, would be among the issues facing Huillard's successor.

Personal life

Huillard is married to Béatrice, and they have five children. In 2010 Capital reported that for more than 20 years the couple had lived in Versailles, in a house whose garden façade is listed as a historic monument. They lived there with Béatrice's mother, Monique, and had restored the house room by room. The couple then had three grandchildren. None of his children went into construction.

A former tennis player, Huillard used to jog in the park of the Palace of Versailles. He has spoken of his passion for sailing and for music. Capital reported that he enjoys singing and leads his guests in song at home.

Philanthropy

Air Liquide's biography states that Huillard supports projects that strengthen social ties and help excluded people back into work. Huillard does so mainly through the group's foundations and endowment funds, working with charities. He sits on the boards of the Fondation d'entreprise Vinci pour la Cité and of Association Aurore.

In 2018, after President Emmanuel Macron asked 100 business leaders to do more for residents of deprived neighbourhoods, Huillard said the group would offer 250 work-experience placements for pupils in the troisième year of secondary school in December 2018. The group would then offer 5,000 the following year in 10 priority education zones, along with summer placements for students and an initial hundred or so six-month contracts "to put people back in the saddle".

See also

• Vinci SA
• Pierre Anjolras
• Antoine Zacharias
• Air Liquide
• Eiffage

External links

• Vinci official website
• Xavier Huillard on the Air Liquide board of directors page