Prescient and sagacious Patrick Kron, Member of the Company's Board since July 2001, has been the Chief Executive Officer of ALSTOM since January 2003. ALSTOM, a French company, which has diversified into its numerous branches globally, designs and builds and services technologically advanced products and systems for the world's energy and transport infrastructure. ALSTOM has built power plants and has provided almost 20% of the world's total installed capacity in power generation. They are the engineers and builders of the TGV, the world's fastest train, Singapore's automatic metros and almost the entire fleet of metros for the city of Paris. In addition, they have also built highly complex ships, which includes the recently completed Queen Mary 2, the largest cruise ship in the world. Employing over 75,000 people in over 70 countries worldwide, ALSTOM deems competitive technology as the main component of its business strategy, both to meet the quality and efficiency expectations of its customers and to achieve its own financial targets. Research and Development efforts are motivated by current and future market needs in the product areas. This is the reason their R&D resources are managed by their businesses, their programmes and priorities being defined and refined by them. ALSTOM is continuously striving to improve the performance, functionality and cost-effectiveness of their products, by developing new technical solutions and innovative application of existing elements. Patrick Kron, a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and from the Paris Ecole des mines, started his career in the Ministry of Industry between 1979 and 1984 before joining the Pechiney Group. From 1984 to 1988, Kron maintained operational responsibilities in one of the Group's most important factories in Greece before becoming the manager of the Greek subsidiary. Between 1988 and 1993, he held several senior operational and financial positions in Pechiney, first managing a group of activities in the processing of aluminium and ultimately became the President of the Electrometallurgy Division. 1993 witnessed him becoming the member of the Executive Committee of the Pechiney Group, and subsequently Chairman of the Carbone Lorraine Company which was developed and internationalized by him. In 1995, he led the privatization of this subsidiary and remained Chairman of the Board until its separation from Pechiney. From 1995 to 1997, he headed the Food & Healthcare Packaging sector of Pechiney and held the position of Chief Operating Officer of the American National Can Company in Chicago (USA). Patrick Kron was the Chief Executive Officer of Imerys, a publicly quoted Company and a global leader in the processing of minerals from 1998 to 2002. Thereafter, he became the Chief Executive Officer of ALSTOM since January 2003. Under the leadership of Kron, ALSTOM assists the energy market through its power generation and the transport market through its activities in marine and rail transport. The Company designs, supplies and serves a complete range of technologically advanced products and systems for its customers, and possesses expertise in systems integration and through life maintenance and service. Under his pilotage, the Company has sought the production of their commodities in such a way that it reduces the environmental hazards to the maximum. Significant examples to this are the usage of power generation efficiencies, novel combustion systems to inhibit NOx formation in gas turbines, new boiler schemes for clean coal combustion, and even genuinely zero emission systems to capture Carbon Dioxide from fuel. The company is involved in finding ways to protect the marine environment through such initiatives as the 'clean' passenger ship which avoids dumping of waste or the Oil Sea Harvester which can efficiently collect split oil. The Group is engaged in reduction of visual impact, not only through more compact components and systems, but also innovative approaches such as semi-autonomous trams permitting the elimination of overhead wires in city centers. Under his expert guidance, major advances in the field of information and communication technologies, electrical substation monitoring and control, and new services such as remote maintenance or trading in de-regulated electricity markets are being innovated constantly. Known to be an excellent manager of crisis situations, it is only a matter of time when developments made in the country would enable ALSTOM to improve the lifetime of mechanical components and the power outputs of electrical machines, all of which would serve to lower the cost for their clients and soar the profits for the company.