Patrice Caine is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École des Mines de Paris and holds the rank of Ingénieur en Chef of the Corps des Mines. He began his career in 1992 with the pharmaceutical group Fournier before becoming an adviser on mergers, acquisitions and corporate strategy at Charterhouse Bank Limited in London.
From 1995 to 2000, he held several executive positions in the French administration. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the technical advisor on energy at the cabinet office of the French Minister for the economy, finance and industry.
In 2002, Patrice Caine joined the Thales Group's Strategy department before being appointed to manage the following operating units: Air & Naval, Communications, Navigation & Identification, Air Systems, Radio-communication Products, and Network & Infrastructure Systems and Protection Systems.
In February 2013, he was appointed Senior Executive Vice-President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Performance Officer and joined the Executive Committee.
Patrice Caine was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Thales in December 2014.
He has served on the Boards of Directors of Naval Group since 2015, and L’Oréal since 2018.
He has been Vice-President of the Groupement des Industries Françaises Aéronautiques et Spatiales (GIFAS) since 2015, Chairman of the Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (ANRT) since 2019, and Vice-President of France Industrie since 2020.
In 2020, Patrice Caine became a member of the Executive Committee of the Conseil National de l’Industrie.
In France, Patrice Caine has been awarded the National Defence Medal (bronze level) and was named Knight of the National Order of Merit in 2014 and Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2017.