Philippe-Olivier Rousseau elected as new AEPOC President

• Jean Grenier retires from presidency after 13 years of successful anti-piracy leadership
  
• Philippe-Olivier Rousseau with proven track record in the field of media and telecoms
  

Philippe-Olivier Rousseau (53), Managing Director and Senior Banker at BNP Paribas has been elected as new president of the European Anti-Piracy Association, AEPOC. Mr. Rousseau is the successor to Jean Grenier (75), the former General Director of Eutelsat, who retires after pioneering and developing the first pan-European industry initiative against audio-visual piracy during 13 years. The AEPOC General Assembly appointed Philippe-Olivier Rousseau relying on his neutrality and long-standing, proven track record in the media and telecommunications sectors within manifold assignments and directorships over the past 30 years. Among many other commitments the telecommunications engineer and musician Rousseau held positions at the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), Eutelsat, Intelsat and Music Choice Europe.

Mr. Rousseau is now to head the association’s future development: The co-ordination of effective political and legal industry initiatives against piracy, the exchange of technical information, expertise and best practice as well as tightening AEPOC’s relationships with EU policy associations and global anti-piracy partners will be – among many other tasks – on the agenda of the new president.

Philippe-Olivier Rousseau: “AEPOC unites some of the industry’s finest firms and renown experts in the name of a healthy, secure and striving European media and telecommunications market. Safeguarding innovation and growth has to be one of the key issues of European industry policies. Following the ground-breaking work of Jean Grenier and the association’s members I am extremely honoured to represent and develop AEPOC’s achievements, since piracy is becoming an increasingly aggressive global phenomenon.”

The election of Philippe-Olivier Rousseau marked the association’s board of directors meeting and general assembly, recently held in Brussels. The members expressed their respect and gratitude to Jean Grenier. Under Jean Grenier’s presidency AEPOC started its first activities in 1995 and was officially founded in 1997 by six members. With Jean Grenier heading AEPOC the association achieved significant growth in membership and spearheaded major political and industry achievements such as the proliferation of the EU’s cornerstone anti-piracy legislation, the Conditional Access Directive 98/84/EC, as well as the Bratislava Charter, the AEPOC Code of Ethics and Good Practice. The association was able to benefit largely from Mr. Greniers long-standing expertise and global network as former General Director of Eutelsat, pioneer and doyen of the European media and telecoms industry.

Jean Grenier: “It was a great honour for me to support AEPOC from its first steps as President – and representative of member company Eutelsat. Looking ahead, as the world becomes increasingly dependent on reliable and secure access to media, the economic and political threat of piracy is more menacing than ever. AEPOC will have to use all the energy and determination of its new president, the vice presidents and all of its members to continue the fight against piracy and bring down any of the emerging threats.”

Mr. Grenier continued: “Thanks to Mr. Rousseau’s ultra-panoramic experience in the media and telecommunication sectors, reaching from finance over to operations and politics, I am fully convinced that a President, who is not representing an AEPOC member company, will be in an excellent position to lead the association – in close partnership with the support of the Vice Presidential team of Mrs. Christine Maury-Panis (Viaccess) and Mr. Michael Barley (BSkyB).”

The next AEPOC meeting is planned for March 2010