1. From 2019, Thierry Breton served as the European Commissioner for Internal Market under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, an appointment that met with controversy, as he was considered by anti-corruption association Anticor to be at serious risk of conflicts of interest over his previous posts at France Telecom and Atos.
Thierry Breton's father was a civil servant in the agency responsible for developing nuclear energy.
Thierry Breton completed his middle and high school education at the Ecole alsacienne in Paris and University-preparatory school classes for the Grandes ecoles at Lycee Louis-le-Grand.
Thierry Breton received a master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Ecole Superieure d'Electricite in 1979 and later graduated from the Institut des hautes etudes de defense nationale.
Thierry Breton began his career in 1979 as a teacher of IT and Mathematics at the Lycee Francais de New York as part of his military service through cooperation.
In 1986 Thierry Breton became adviser to the French Minister of Education and Research Rene Monory and designed open-air science and technology theme park Futuroscope.
In 1993, the French government hired Thierry Breton to help turn around troubled national computer maker Groupe Bull.
Thierry Breton is widely credited with pulling Bull from the edge of bankruptcy.
Thierry Breton made stock offerings to generate cash and diversified the company's businesses, figuring that consumer-electronics products were not high-end enough to consistently earn profits over the long term.
Thierry Breton involved Thomson in interactive television, electronic publishing, and the Internet, as well as the higher-margin business of digital film-editing services.
Thomson's new ventures instilled investors with renewed confidence in the company and allowed Thierry Breton to attract big name companies such as Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, and the DirecTV division of Hughes Electronics.
Thierry Breton was named Honorary President of the company in September 2002 following his departure for France Telecom.
Widely acclaimed as a "turnaround whiz", Thierry Breton was named by French government as head of multinational telecommunications corporation France Telecom on 2 October 2002.
When Thierry Breton took over share prices were less than 7 euros.
In July 2004 Thierry Breton announced the launch of Livebox, the operator's first Triple Play offer and France Telecom would become the first organisation to implement the concept of integrated operator.
Thierry Breton was named as Honorary President of France Telecom.
Thierry Breton held the 62nd position for his term as CEO of France Telecom.
In July 2011 Thierry Breton orchestrated the acquisition of the IT activities of German industry group Siemens, which allowed the company to rank number one among the European IT services players and in the Top 5 worldwide, with 75 000 employees in 42 countries.
In 2012 Thierry Breton adopted the Societas Europaea for Atos which gave the company two headquarters, one in France and a second in Munich, Germany.
In May 2014 Thierry Breton launched a friendly takeover of French historic IT industry player Bull, turning Atos into the number one European company and one of the major global players in Big Data and Cybersecurity.
Six months later Thierry Breton announced Atos' acquisition of Xerox's IT outsourcing activities as well as a strategic partnership with the American company.
Thierry Breton had doubled in size within six years, with a headcount of around 100,000 employees.
Thierry Breton received world attention after an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2011 when he reiterated his intention to ban internal email, dubbed as "the pollution of the information age", at Atos within 18 months, replacing internal emails by a set of enterprise social networks, enterprise instant messaging, collaborative tools et cetera, both being developed in-house and partially aggregated from other vendors.
Thierry Breton stated to the French people that the entirety of their income tax would serve only to finance the interest payments on the national debt.
In October 2005 Thierry Breton proposed a law on "the modernization of the economy" which was voted in the same year and looked to prioritize SMEs' access to financial markets, encourage research and promote giving employees a stake in the company's outcomes.
Thierry Breton wanted France to be the first country to move forward in developing its immaterial heritage.
Thierry Breton finished his term on 15 May 2007 at the end of Jacques Chirac's five-year term.
In 2019, Thierry Breton was nominated by President Emmanuel Macron to become a member of the European Commission for the Internal Market.
Thierry Breton was an outspoken critic of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Thierry Breton had been widely expected to serve a second term in the European Commission.
In 2008, Thierry Breton was considered for chairing Protectinvest, a private foundation in Belgium set up by billionaire Bernard Arnault to safeguard the integrity of the LVMH group until 2023.
Thierry Breton is the author of many books about information technology and economy, and co-author of a novel about cyberspace.
Thierry Breton is an officer of the Legion d'honneur and a commander of the Ordre National du Merite.
On 24 April 2018, Thierry Breton was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump in honor of President Emmanuel Macron at the White House.
On 1 April 2021, Thierry Breton told the media that no vaccines would be exported from the EU unless Astrazeneca fulfills its obligations towards the EU.
On 12 August 2024, Thierry Breton urged X and Elon Musk to censor an interview with former US President Donald Trump.
Thierry Breton has been married to journalist Nicole-Valerie Baroin since 1981.
In 2023, Thierry Breton purchased Gargilesse Castle in Gargilesse-Dampierre from a local painter, Annick Thevenin, who had bought the castle in 1998 to use as an art gallery.
Thierry Breton is not planning to live there and intends to keep it as a cultural space.