Olivier Houssin is a graduate of École Polytechnique and École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications.

His career began at Thomson-CGR with General Manager responsibilities in Italy and in the US, before becoming EVP of Thomson Consumer Electronics. He joined Alcatel in 1992 as President of Alcatel's Cables activities in North America and then President of the Telecom Products activities (1996-1998). He went on to become President of Alcatel's Enterprise business, joining Alcatel's Executive Committee in 2000. Before the Thales-Alcatel agreement, he was EVP of Alcatel, President of the Private Communications activities and supervising the Enterprise, Transport, Space and Services activities. He has held his current positions at Thales since January 2007.