Jean-Michel Gires has been appointed Executive Vice President, Sustainable Development and the Environment, effective January 2003 and becomes a member of TotalFinaElf's Management Committee. He succeeds Bernard Tramier.

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Jean-Michel Gires
Executive Vice President, Sustainable Development and the Environment

Jean-Michel Gires, born in 1957, is a graduate of France's prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, an engineer with the Corps des Mine, and a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur. He began his career in 1980 as a production engineer with Saint-Gobain in France and later the United States. He then joined the French Industry Ministry in 1982 as head of the nuclear construction inspection bureau, before moving to the department of renewable energies and rational energy use. He joined Total in 1988 as Planning and Economic Studies Manager for petroleum product distribution at Total Oil Great Britain, before holding a number of senior management positions in France, Spain and Portugal in the oil distribution segment. In 1994, he was appointed Strategy, Planning and Financial Control Manager for Total Exploration and Production. In 1998, he became head of the North Sea Division of TotalFina Exploration and Production. From 2000 to late 2002, he was President of TotalFinaElf in Venezuela, where he coordinated the Sincor project to develop and upgrade extra-heavy Orinoco crude oil, one of the Group's flagship projects.