Date of creation : 1994
President : French Air Force Major General (Ret) Jean-Marc Vigilant
Secretary-general : IGA (2S) Olivier Gras
Email : eurodefense-france@wanadoo.fr
Phone number: +33 (0) 1 44 42 42 15
The President
Jean-Marc Vigilant is founder and Chairman of BeVigilant.
He advises CEOs of innovative companies with high growth potential in emerging, disruptive and strategic sectors, to develop their activities, including internationally.
In addition, as President of EuroDéfense-France, he puts his experience in defence matters at the service of the European institutions.
A general officer in the French Air Force, Jean-Marc Vigilant is a graduate of the French Air and Space Force Academy, holds diplomas from the French and Spanish War Colleges, and is an auditor at the NATO Defense College in Rome.
Previously Director of the War College in Paris, he adapted the training of future military leaders to the changing strategic environment and new domains of warfare, while strengthening the college’s international and European dimension.
In the course of his military career, he has held a wide range of responsibilities, mainly on a joint and international basis, most often at the strategic level in the politico-military field, advising senior French and allied civilian and military authorities. In particular, he has served as an exchange officer in the Spanish Ministry of Defense and as Executive Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation (SACT), NATO’s highest military authority in the United States.
At operational level, a fighter pilot by trade, with over 3,000 flying hours and 90 combat missions to his credit, he commanded the 3/33 “Lorraine” fighter squadron in Reims, the 102 “Capitaine Guynemer” air base and the Dijon joint defense base. He also took part in numerous missions and operations in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, and more recently in the Middle East, where he was the French Senior National Representative responsible for the French armed forces involved in the international coalition in Iraq and Syria, and Director of Civil-Military operations of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
The Secretary General
Olivier GRAS, Ingénieur Général de l’armement (2S), graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (X), SupAéro (ENSAé), and the French Institute of Management (IFG-ICG), has held leading positions within the Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) in the French Ministry of Defence.
After piloting the strategic electronic components plan, he supervised an export command system program. Having faced the private sector’s dilemmas, he then worked on the reorganisation of the electronics industry working for the defence and on the evolution of the direction of naval shipbuilding. From 1997 to 2008, he drew up French guidelines for armaments cooperation, designed the European defence agency, and represented France to the NATO support and acquisition agency’s steering committee. In 2008, as legal advisor to the Delegate-General for Armaments, he oversaw the overhaul of regulatory and organisational texts of the DGA and then supervised its real estate and land affairs. Thanks to his extensive experience, he is one of the few specialists mastering both French and European armaments sectors in the high tech area. A certified corporate director (ASC France), he assists startups and leads works on the governance of these companies within associations of corporate directors. Olivier Gras is a program advisor to the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale, where he attended the 8th European session for armaments directors (SERA). He also teaches at Sciences Po – Paris School of International Affairs.
He is married, father of 2 children.
He is a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur and an Officer of the Ordre National du Mérite.