Born in 1963 and a graduate of the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), joined the French General Inspectorate of Finance in 1992, becoming a Financial Inspector. In 1996 he joined the General Tax Directorate (DGI) where, after heading the management control and transformation department, he was appointed Director of Information Systems and Strategy, responsible in particular for France’s Copernic program (digital transformation of tax administration and overhaul of the DGI’s information and payment systems).
From 2003 to the end of 2004, he was economic and financial advisor to the Prime Minister, before going on to serve as Chief of Staff to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry from 2005 to May 2007. In September 2007 he joined the Executive Committee of the international banking group Crédit Agricole SA, first as director of strategy and then as head of payment systems and services.
In 2008 he joined the international IT services group ATOS where he was appointed Senior Executive Vice President in charge of global functions, global sales and consulting. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of Worldline since July 2013, and oversaw the successful partial listing of this former ATOS group subsidiary in June 2014 when it had a market capitalization of approximately 2 billion euros. Since then, Worldline has undergone an ambitious expansion, acquiring Equens in 2016, SIX Payment Services in 2018 and Ingenico in 2020. The company became fully independent from ATOS on May 3, 2019 and is now the number-one ranking electronic payment services company in Europe and number four in the world. It has been included in the CAC40 index since March 2020.
Until June 2022, Gilles Grapinet was also the first Chairman of the European Digital Payments Industry Alliance (EDPIA), which represents the interests of independent payment services providers headquartered in Europe. In a non-executive capacity he chairs the Supervisory Board of Younited, an ACPR-approved “fintech” banking institution specializing in consumer credit.
Gilles Grapinet has also been awarded France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. He is a French national.