Afnic, the association responsible for managing the .fr Internet Top Level Domain and several French overseas and other generic TLDs, has announced the election of André Schwob to the office of Chair. Drawing on his experience as senior civil servant and his digital expertise, he will chair the Association with the Board of Trustees backed by the support of its CEO and the entire Afnic team.
He succeeds Godefroy Beauvallet, Chair since 2019.
André Schwob has been Head of the General Council of the Economy, Industry, Energy and Technology (CGE) at the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance since 2024. He previously headed up the “network support” department of the General Directorate for Consumer Affairs, Competition Policy and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), prior to which he held the post of head of “transformation support” at the General Secretariat for the Modernisation of Public Action (SGMAP) from 2016 to 2018. Between 2012 and 2016 he was Director of Information Systems and Processes at the Caisse des Dépôts, and held several management positions within the Information Systems and Procurement departments at Ernst & Young from 2006 to 2012. Schwob began his career in 1984 with the La Poste group, where he moved up to the position of Director of Postal Information Systems from 2001 to 2006.
Furthermore, he acted as an eminent personality for the High Commission for Postal and Digital services (CSNP) between 2016 and 2018.
A Corps des Mines engineer, André Schwob also holds diplomas from the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and has an Executive MBA from HEC business school.
André Schwob was appointed from among the representatives of the founding members of the Association for a three-year term following the Board of Trustees meeting and the Ordinary General Assembly of 6 June 2025. Schwob will ensure that Afnic shines and will guide its actions in support of a secure and stable Internet, open to innovation and in which the French Internet community plays a leading role.
About Afnic
Afnic is the acronym for Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération, the French Network Information Centre. The registry has been appointed by the French government to manage domain names under the .fr Top Level Domain. Afnic also manages the .re (Reunion Island), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte) French Overseas TLDs.
In addition to managing French TLDs, Afnic’s role is part of a wider public interest mission, which is to contribute on a daily basis, thanks to the efforts of its teams and its members, to a secure and stable internet, open to innovation and in which the French internet community plays a leading role. As part of that mission, Afnic, a non-profit organization, has committed to devoting 11% of its Revenues from managing .fr Top Level Domain to actions of general interest, in particular by transferring €1.3 million each year to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity.
Afnic is also the back-end registry for the companies as well as local and regional authorities that have chosen to have their own TLD, such as .paris, .bzh, .alsace, .corsica, .mma, .ovh, .leclerc and .sncf.
Established in 1997 and based in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Afnic currently has nearly 90 employees.
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