Breton the new boss at France Telecom

NEWS Thierry Breton, former head of Thomson Multimedia, is the newly appointed chairman of France Telecom and kicked off his time at the debt-laden telco by addressing its near quarter of a million staff on Wednesday. His tasks will include rebuilding shareholder confidence, at first by reducing the E70bn it owes, dealing with unions and taking the right steps with customers and the French government, still the telco's majority owner. Breton's success at Thomson Multimedia made him that rare thing - a silicon.com Agenda Setter of 2002 who has moved onwards and upwards this year. Of him, we wrote: "[He is] sure to make advances over the next 12 months." The Agenda Setter 'curse' has so far befallen executives including Thomas Middelhoff (ex of Bertelsmann), Jean-Marie Messier (ex Vivendi Universal), and telco heads Ron Sommer and Michel Bon, France Telecom's previous boss.