Created in 2006, the Directorate General for Information and Communication Systems [DGSIC] has always had at its head a general officer or an engineer who has passed through the benches of a school under the General Directorate of Armaments [DGA]like Henri Serres, former technical director of the Directorate General for External Security [DGSE] having also held the position of Central Director of Information Systems Security at the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security [SGDSN].
Then, in 2018, under the leadership of Admiral Arnaud Coustilliere, the DGSIC saw its scope of action widened by becoming the Directorate General for Digital and Information Systems [DGNum]. And now his missions consist of “coordinating the action of the armies, departments and services in terms of inventory, governance, production, circulation, sharing and use of data within the Ministry of the Armed Forces as well as promoting accessibility data between administrations or in the public domain, in an open and reusable format”.
Two years later, Admiral Coustilliere handed over to General Armament Engineer Nicolas Fournier. However, the latter was recently appointed Director of Plans, Programs and Budget of the DGA. And to replace him at the head of the DGNum, from next January 3 an engineer from the civil sector, Vincent Tejedor, was appointed during the last Council of Ministers, on the proposal of Elisabeth Borne, the head of government, and of Sébastien Lecornu, the Minister for the Armed Forces.
“This appointment reflects the Minister’s desire to strengthen the innovation dynamic for the digital strategy at the Ministry of the Armed Forces”, argued the Hôtel de Brienne, via a press release issued on December 23.
However, and while other names were circulating to succeed the IGA Fournier, including that of the IGA Frédéric Bouyer [architecte de préparation des systèmes futurs C4ISR à la DGA] or that of the senior civil defense engineer Hervé Cicchelero, Digital Strategy Advisor to the DGNUM, nothing predestined Mr. Tejenor to occupy such a position.
Normalien, engineer of the corps des Mines and doctor in theoretical physics, the new DGNum began his professional career within GDF-SUEZ. Having obtained a master’s degree in public law and participated in the creation of the company Expliseat, specializing in seats for light aircraft, he joined the Court of Auditors as rapporteur in the fields of defence, industry and energy.
Mr. Tejenor was also Deputy Director of Business Development at the General Directorate of Business of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, after a stint at DIRISI [Direction interarmées des réseaux d’infrastructure et des systèmes d’information, ndlr]which provides, as its name suggests, the function of telecommunications operator and information systems manager of the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
In addition, Vincent Tejedor is an auditor of the 2nd national session of the Institute for Advanced National Defense Studies [cycle 2022-23] within the “economic defense and security” major.
