Michel Puyrazat, Interim Chair of the Management Board of Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port Authority

By ministerial order published on 31st August 2023, Michel Puyrazat has been appointed Interim Chair of the Management Board of Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port Authority as of 1st September. He will also be continuing in his role as Chair of the Management Board of La Rochelle Port Authority.

At 58 years of age, this engineer originally from Dordogne in South-Western France is already well known to Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port’s teams, since back in 2010 he took the helm at the Directorate of Finance and Planning, which notably covers strategic project management, management control, and quality management. He was appointed Chair of the Management Board of La Rochelle Port Authority in 2013.

Michel Puyrazat previously held a variety of positions in both decentralized and Central Government services. In the Department of Deux-Sèvres, first of all, then in the Department of Vendée, with responsibility for road networks and for regional and urban planning and development projects. He was also a management advisor with the Charente Departmental Public Works and Infrastructure Directorate before joining the Central Administration in 2001 as a project leader for modernization. In 2006, when he was General Secretary of the Pays de la Loire Regional Public Works and Infrastructure Directorate and of the Loire Atlantique Departmental Public Works and Infrastructure Directorate, he helped to transform those Directorates, with the prefiguration of the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning & Development, and Housing, and of the Departmental Directorate for Local Communities and Maritime Affairs. At the same time, he acted as the interministerial point of contact for the Prefectural Authority of Loire Atlantique in assisting the process of change in other Central Government services.

Together with Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port’s entire personnel, Michel Puyrazat intends to pursue the momentum generated within the framework of the 2021-2026 strategic plan: "The challenges involved in transforming the economic model are significant, and the first results for the growth drivers identified in the strategy are promising. We need to stay on course in terms of projects and investments, notably in order to deploy the offshore wind power sector, to speed up decarbonization, and to develop business activities, in close collaboration with the Port Community and engaging in an effective industrial relations dialogue".