Cédric O


Cédric O is a French politician of La République En Marche! who has been serving as Secretary of State for the Digital Economy in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe since 2019.

Early life and education

Cédric O, son of a French mother from Lyon and a Korean executive, was born on 18 December 1982. He is brother of Delphine O, member of the National Assembly for Paris's 16th constituency.
After graduating from Lycée du Parc, he enrolled at HEC Paris, from which he received his diploma in 2006.

Business career

In 2007, O started working as communications manager for the Operationelle corporation. Between 2014 and 2017, he was project manager for the Safran aircraft & rocket engine manufacturing company.

Political career

Along with future La République En Marche! cadres Ismaël Emelien and Benjamin Griveaux, as well as HEC alumnus Stanislas Guerini, O participated in the campaign team of Dominique Strauss-Kahn for the 2006 French Socialist Party presidential primary.
After serving as political adviser to finance minister Pierre Moscovici,, during the presidency of Socialist François Hollande, O was appointed treasurer of the La République En Marche! party in Emmanuel Macron's 2016–17 presidential campaign. In November 2017, O assumed the duties of political advisor to Macron and prime minister Édouard Philippe.
Also since November 2017, O has been part of LREM's executive board under the leadership of the party's successive chairmen Christophe Castaner and Stanislas Guerini.
On 31 March 2019, O was appointed Parliamentary Undersecretary for the Digital Economy, serving under the leadership of minister Bruno Le Maire. In this capacity, he has invited tech CEOs to meet with the French president about the so-called “tech for good" project, as well as venture capitalists to Paris to promote to them the purported benefits of investing in the French "tech ecosystem." Cédric O convinced Facebook to allow French regulators to investigate the company's moderation processes, and also arranged a meeting between Macron and Mark Zuckerberg.

Political positions

Amid efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in France, O was one of the early supporters of the government's proposal for a state-supported “StopCovid” contact-tracing app project. He later publicly accused Apple Inc. of undermining the effort by refusing to help make its iPhones more compatible with the app.