Our team

GenF management team

Yann Gerard

CEO of GenF

A graduate engineer from Polytech Paris-Saclay in optronics, Yann GERARD joined Alcatel to develop telecommunications lasers. Between 2004 and 2024, he transitioned to the defense industry, eventually becoming Director of Strategy for the Optronics and Missile Electronics Business Line at Thales. During this period, he was also an auditor of the 59th major in Armament and Defense Economics at the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale. In 2024, Yann founded GenF and assumed its presidency.

Yann Gérard

CEO of GenF

Herve Besaucele

CTO of GenF

Hervé Besaucèle holds a doctorate in high-power lasers and has held various research and development positions in the field of laser systems for the semiconductor industry, first at CYMER (ASML group, San Diego, USA), then as Technical Director of EXCICO (Gennevilliers), a startup acquired in 2014 by the Japanese group SCREEN-Semiconductor. He joined Thales in 2019 as Head of Engineering for the laser product line and has held the position of Technical Director of GenF since 2024.

Hervé Besaucèle

CTO of GenF

Sylvain Ledru

COO of GenF

Sylvain LEDRU graduated from Ecole Polytechnique with a specialization in “Energies du XXIème siècle” and holds a degree in atomic engineering from Mines ParisTech. After his studies, Sylvain LEDRU joined Framatome for 6 years to participate in the development of the TSN and OL3 EPR reactors. From 2016 to 2025, Sylvain became head of the Electrical Systems and Equipment department at TechnicAtome. He is now Director of Operations at GenF.

Sylvain Ledru

COO of GenF

Teaming up with leading partners

Sébastien Le Pape

LULI laboratory Director at CNRS & Holder of Fusion Chair at Ecole Polytechnique

Sébastien Le Pape is currently Director of the Laboratory for the Use of Intense Lasers (Palaiseau, France), a researcher at École Polytechnique, and holder of the “High Energy Density and Inertial Fusion” Chair at École Polytechnique. An experimental physicist, his doctoral work focused on the optical properties of X-ray lasers. He then spent 14 years at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working primarily on the Inertial Confinement Fusion program at the National Ignition Facility. At LLNL, he co-led the “diamond” campaign on the NIF, which paved the way for experiments that led to ignition.

Sébastien Le Pape

LULI laboratory Director at CNRS & Holder of Fusion Chair at Ecole Polytechnique

Éric Mevel

CELIA laboratory Director at CNRS

Alexis Casner

Project Manager for experimentation plasma and Laser at CEA

Alexis Morel

VP BL Optronics & Missile Electronics at Thales

Alexis Morel is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (Promotion Romain Gary) in Strasbourg, the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and the Université de Paris Sorbonne. Alexis worked as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the Strategic Affairs and Security Directorate from 2005 to 2008, as part of the White Paper Commission in 2007-2008, and then at the French Embassy in the United States from 2008 to 2011. In 2011-2012, he served as Adviser to the President of the Republic on politico-military and security issues. Alexis joined Thales in 2013 as Group Strategy Director in charge of the Europe region, which includes 13 subsidiaries. He became Managing Director of Thales Underwater Systems SAS in 2015. In September 2021, he is Vice President Operations of the Land and Air Systems business. Since January 2025, Alexis has been Vice-President of Thales Optronics and Missile Electronics. Aged 46, Alexis has 2 sons.

Alexis Morel

VP BL Optronics & Missile Electronics at Thales

A unique combination of expertise, backed by world-renowned corporation and research labs

GenF has already created a unique edge:
gather world leading expertise on every
subset needed to create the first fusion
reactor

High-energy lasers

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LULI in one of the most renowned research centers in the field of plasma physics and use of highpower, high-intensity lasers.
Thales, leading French aerospace, defense, and security player, has designed and is operating some of the largest lasers in the world

Fusion physics & simulations

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CELIA is a research laboratory with worldwide
expertise in high-energy lasers, extreme
interactions with matter and plasmas through
some of the most powerful simulation codes in the
academic world

Fusion fuel

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CEA DAM is part of CEA’s Military Applications
Division. It designs nuclear warheads for deterrent
weapons and guarantees their safety and reliability,
with the support of the Simulation program. It is at
the cutting edge of nuclear engineering and excels
in managing fusion fuel

Industrial engineering

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Thales has a deep know-how in carrying out long
term industrial project, from R&D to fully industrial
products

GenF management team

Teaming up with leading partners

A unique combination of expertise, backed by world-renowned corporation and research labs

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