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Alain Tingaud
Alain Tingaud

Alain Tingaud was born in Confolens in the Charente and spent his youth in Sables-d'Olonne. His father was a plasterer while his mother was in charge of raising their 6 children. Passionate about rugby since childhood and endowed with a solid build, he played the oval ball until university.

An engineer, he started out at Thomson, then spent a good part of his career in the telecom industry. First at Tekelec Airtronic, then at BridgeCom for which he created the French subsidiary. The latter was bought by another American company, 3Com, for which he then managed the European activities. In 1990, he created Arche Communications which he sold five years later to Siemens Nixdorf. At the same time, while managing the German computer manufacturer's activities in France, he created InfoVista. The young company innovated with software to measure the quality of service of operators. In 2000, InfoVista raised $78 million on the stock market. A decade later, the company was bought by an American fund that delisted it. In 2008, he handed over the leadership of InfoVista to its Chief Financial Officer to "move on to something else".

In 1999, Alain Tingaud and his wife decided to leave Paris and make their country house in Saint-Astier, in the north of the Lot-et-Garonne, their main residence. However, he continues to travel back and forth to the capital, even though he also invests locally. The 19-hectare wine farm whose vineyards surround his house is for sale: an "opportunity" that corresponds to a deep-seated desire. In 2009, seeing his sixties arrive, he has the "great joy" of passing on the Domaine de Dame Bertrande to his son, Brice. Although he now only plays an advisory role to his son, Alain Tingaud remains very busy. First as an investor, with a role as a venture partner for Sofinnova, which allows him to sit on the board of directors of several companies. And above all as a business angel, through his personal investment fund, Alain Tingaud Innovation. Since 1995, he has invested in 18 start-ups, 11 of which still exist.

XV rugby manager

In 2005, he became president of the Rugby Club Massy Essonne. He left in 2007 to join the management of Sporting Union Agen Lot-et-Garonne.

He arrived as an investor in SU Agen in 2006 and became its president in 2007 after investing "several million euros "2. In 2010, the club won the French2nd division championship. In 2018, he became honorary president of the club and left the presidency to Jean-François Fonteneau, the club's new main shareholder.

From November 2011 until his election to the NRL, he is the secretary of the Union des clubs professionnels de rugby, a union of Top 14 and Pro D2 professional clubs.

In 2012, he is a candidate for president of the National Rugby League. He was elected to the steering committee but was defeated to take the presidency by Paul Goze. He then became vice president in charge of training and retraining At the general meeting of October 4, 2016, he was re-elected to the NRL board as representative of Pro D2 clubs He remains vice president of the league. He resigned from his position as representative of the Pro D2 clubs in 2017 following SU Agen's rise to the Top 14, and was immediately elected representative of the Top 14 clubs.

In 2017, following the conflict between the National Rugby League and the French Rugby Federation, he was appointed by the NRL in the commission of rapprochement and dialogue with the FFR, which aimed to find an exit from the crisis. He is accompanied by five other presidents: Mourad Boudjellal (Toulon), Jean-René Bouscatel (Toulouse), Éric de Cromières (Clermont), Vincent Merling (La Rochelle) and Pierre-Yves Revol (Castres)9. In June, the FFR and the NRL reached an agreement on the provision of international players for the following season, an issue that had plagued their relations for several months.

From 2020 to 2021, he is a member of the French Rugby Federation's board of directors as a representative of the NRL.

In February 2021, he officially announced his candidacy for the presidency of the national rugby league, the election of which was scheduled for March 23. He finally withdrew from the race for the presidency a few days before the election and lent his support to the president of Stade Rochelais Vincent Merling. He was still a candidate to join the general assembly and the steering committee as an outside personality, but was not elected.